Defense Secretary Gen. Jim Mattis explained the role nearly 5,800 troops deployed to the southern border will play after President Donald Trump expanded Mattis’s authority to include the use of force, even lethal, in defense of the Border Patrol.
Mattis said that while he’s authorized to use lethal force, that is not what the mission currently calls for and it’s up to Kirstjen Nielsen, secretary of Homeland Security (DHS), to request it.
