Trump likely to give U.S. troops authority to protect immigration agents

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Special Response Team (SRT) officers are seen through concertina wire after the San Ysidro Port of Entry land border crossing was temporarily closed to traffic in Tijuana, Mexico November 19, 2018. REUTERS/Adrees Latif

WASHINGTON/TIJUANA, Mexico (Reuters) - President Donald Trump is likely to give U.S. troops authority to protect immigration agents stationed along the U.S. border with Mexico if they come under threat from migrants seeking to cross into the United States, a U.S. official said on Monday.

Ahead of U.S. congressional elections earlier this month, Trump denounced the approach of a caravan of migrants as an "invasion" that threatened American national security, and he sent thousands of U.S. troops to the border to help secure it.