[Independent] US troops dispatched by Donald Trump to the US-Mexico border have started erecting fences and laying out razor wire, a purported defence against Central American migrants, but which have been dismissed as a "political stunt" on the eve of midterm elections.Images from the US border town of Hidalgo, Texas, located on the banks of the Rio Grande, show armed soldiers normally based at Fort Riley, Kansas, erecting fences and laying rolls of wire close to the site of the McAllen-Hidalgo International Bridge. The troops ‐ the first of an anticipated 7,000-strong deployment ‐ were from the 97th Military Police Battalion, according to a Getty photographer.
Mr Trump has in recent days vowed to send thousands of troops south to help secure the border against what he has termed a possible "invasion" of migrants from countries such as El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, all of which suffer from chronic levels of violence and grinding poverty.