WASHINGTON—President Trump said Wednesday he is prepared to deploy as many as 15,000 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border in anticipation of a caravan of Central American migrants, sharply increasing the number the administration had signaled earlier in the week.
“They are not coming in our country,” Mr. Trump told reporters before departing for Florida and a political rally.
Earlier in the day, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis defended the deployment of thousands of troops to the border and rejected criticisms that the U.S. military’s operation was motivated by midterm politics, saying: “We don’t do stunts.”
Mr. Mattis made his remarks during a Pentagon meeting with his South Korean counterpart, marking his first public comments since the U.S. military said it was deploying more than 5,200 active-duty troops to at least three border states.
President Trump has made immigration and secure borders a priority issue in the final days of the election, potentially shifting several close-cutting House and Senate races, including contests being held in border states.
Along with troop deployments, Mr. Trump said he wants to sign an executive order to end automatic citizenship for children born in the U.S. whose parents are undocumented immigrants. Birthright citizenship is afforded under the 14th Amendment. Legal scholars called Mr. Trump’s plan for an executive order unconstitutional, and critics decried it as another election-season stunt.
House Speaker Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) also dismissed the idea: “You cannot end birthright citizenship with an executive order,” he said. “We didn’t like it when Obama tried changing immigration laws via executive action and obviously as conservatives, we believe in the Constitution.”
Mr. Trump, who believes that birthright citizenship encourages illegal immigration, fired back Wednesday on Twitter : “Paul Ryan should be focusing on holding the Majority rather than giving his opinions on Birthright Citizenship, something he knows nothing about!”
The troops being deployed to the border are expected to be in place in anticipation of a caravan of about 4,000 would-be asylum seekers and migrants from Central America walking toward the U.S. border.
Traveling by foot through Mexico, the caravan is about 900 miles away and isn’t expected to arrive for weeks. A second, smaller caravan crossed the Guatemalan-Mexican border Tuesday and also is expected to make its way to the U.S. border.
It isn’t clear which border crossings members of either caravan would attempt to cross.
Supporters of the military response have said the caravans are increasingly organized and violent, demanding more secure U.S. borders.
“Our military is being mobilized at the Southern Border. Many more troops coming. We will NOT let these Caravans, which are also made up of some very bad thugs and gang members, into the U.S. Our Border is sacred, must come in legally. TURN AROUND!” Mr. Trump tweeted Wednesday.
The White House has provided no evidence that criminals or gang members are hiding among the migrants. Many of the migrants have said they are fleeing violence and oppression back home.
The military mission at the border, dubbed Operation Faithful Patriot, marks the largest single deployment of U.S. troops in the defense chief’s nearly two-year tenure. Since the Pentagon first suggested troops would head to the border late last week, Mr. Mattis has come under increased criticism from observers and retired military officers who they say he is allowing the White House to politicize troop deployments.
U.S. troops aren’t legally allowed to enforce U.S. laws inside the country. The Pentagon has said their mission is to provide logistics, medical and transport support for Customs and Border Protection officials. In addition, military commanders have said that the troops will be tasked to “harden” ports of entry.
The Pentagon has so far not said what units will be a part of the mission or why so many troops are needed. The troops are scheduled to be in place until mid-December.
Unless the first caravan accelerates its pace by taking buses or trucks to the border, it is not expected to arrive until after that time.
—Alex Leary contributed to this article
Write to Nancy A. Youssef at nancy.youssef@wsj.com
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