President Trump accuses Mexican troops of actively helping drug smugglers, says he will send armed soldiers to the border

In a flurry of tweets Wednesday morning, President Donald Trump accused the Mexican government of not doing enough to stop migrants from traveling through its country to the U.S. border and claimed that Mexican soldiers had tried to create a diversion "for drug smugglers."

He also announced that the U.S. was sending "armed soldiers" to the border to counter this.

What did Trump say?

The president began by tweeting, "A very big Caravan of over 20,000 people started up through Mexico. It has been reduced in size by Mexico but is still coming. Mexico must apprehend the remainder or we will be forced to close that section of the Border & call up the Military. The Coyotes & Cartels have weapons!"

There is, in fact, another caravan traveling through southern Mexico at the moment heading for the U.S. border. It is currently estimated to be made up of roughly 10,000 people.

Earlier this month, Trump threatened to shut down the southern border if the Mexican government did not do more to stop drug trafficking. However, even Trump supporters like Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) warned that closing the border could be "devastating" to U.S. businesses who depend on commerce coming through legal ports of entry between the two countries.

The president Wednesday went on to tweet, "Mexico's Soldiers recently pulled guns on our National Guard Soldiers, probably as a diversionary tactic for drug smugglers on the Border. Better not happen again! We are now sending ARMED SOLDIERS to the Border. Mexico is not doing nearly enough in apprehending & returning!"

What happened?

Trump is referring to an incident on April 13 when two U.S. soldiers were detained by six members of the Mexican military. The Mexican soldiers had reportedly believed that they were on the Mexican side of the border when they were in fact on the American side. So far, apart from Trump's tweet, there has been no indication that the incident was some sort of diversion and not accidental. However, the Pentagon is investigating the event.

While Trump has accused the Mexican government in the past of not doing enough to stop drug smugglers, this seems to be the first time that he has actively accused people officially connected to the Mexican government of running interference to actively help them.

Trump has previously said that he planned to send U.S. troops to the southern border until a wall could be built.

President Trump later posted praise for the Border Patrol and a demand that Democrats act on illegal immigration, saying, "Can anyone comprehend what a GREAT job Border Patrol and Law Enforcement is doing on our Southern Border. So far this year they have APPREHENDED 418,000 plus illegal immigrants, way up from last year. Mexico is doing very little for us. DEMS IN CONGRESS MUST ACT NOW!"

The 418,000 number refers to the number of apprehensions reported by U.S. Customs and Border Protection in this fiscal year, which began Oct. 1. That number is higher than the 404,142 apprehensions that took place during the entire 2018 fiscal year.

According to public data made available from CBP, 207,475 total apprehensions took place at the border during the first three months of calendar year 2019. Data for April is not available.