Trump to give White House immigration speech Thursday afternoon

The White House announced Thursday that President Donald Trump plans to give a long-expected speech on immigration late Thursday afternoon.

“The President will make brief remarks on the illegal immigration crisis and give an update on border security today in the Roosevelt Room at 4:15pm," White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement.

Trump has looked to re-focus attention on the issue ahead of the Nov. 6 elections, using it as the core of his closing argument to voters.

Earlier this week, he announced that the Pentagon would deploy 5,200 troops to deter a caravan of largely Honduran migrants at the southern border. On Wednesday, he suggested he could send as many as 15,000.

He made the issue of birthright citizenship a campaign issue this week with his quickly-disputed claim he could unilaterally eliminate the constitutionally-rooted right. The president also released an ad on Wednesday in which he, without evidence, linked the issue of immigration to a case in which a man was given the death penalty for killing two California police officers in 2014 — an incident which he has used in previous campaign ads.

NBC News previously reported that the Trump administration is drafting an executive action that would make it far more difficult for Central Americans seeking asylum to gain entry at the U.S.-Mexico border.

The speech was expected to be given earlier this week but was postponed after a shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue this past weekend, which killed 11 people.

After speaking, the president will travel to Columbia, Missouri for an evening campaign rally.