WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon will begin deploying up to 1,500 active-duty troops to help secure the southern border in the coming days, U.S. officials said Wednesday, implementing plans laid out by President Donald Trump in the decrees shortly after taking office. to suppress immigration.
Acting Defense Secretary Robert Salesses was expected to sign the deployment orders Wednesday, but it was not yet clear which troops or units would be deployed, and the total could fluctuate. It remains to be seen whether they will ultimately enforce the law, which would place American troops in a dramatic new role, never before played out in recent history.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the announcement has not yet been made.
The active-duty forces would join the approximately 2,500 U.S. National Guard and Reserve forces already there. There are currently no troops on active duty along the border.
These forces are expected to be used to support border patrol agents, providing logistics, transportation and barrier construction. They have performed similar tasks in the past, when Trump and former President Joe Biden sent active-duty troops to the border.
The law prohibits troops from performing law enforcement duties at the border, but that could change. Trump ordered by executive order that the new secretary of defense and the new head of homeland security report within 90 days if they believe an 1807 law called Insurrection Act should be invoked. This would allow these troops to be used to enforce civil law on American soil.
The highly anticipated deployment, which will take place during Trump’s first week in office, is a first step in his much-vaunted plan to expand the use of the military along the border. In one of his first orders Monday, Trump ordered the defense secretary to develop a plan to “seal the borders” and repel “mass illegal immigration.”
On Tuesday, just as Trump fired Coast Guard commander Adm. Linda Fagan, the service announced it was sending more ships, planes and personnel to the territory. “Gulf of America” – another nod to the president’s directive to rename the Gulf of Mexico.
Trump declared during his inaugural speech On Monday, “I will declare a national emergency at our southern border. All illegal entry will be stopped immediately and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens to the places where they arrived.”
During his first term, Trump also ordered active-duty troops to the border to assist the Department of Homeland Security and border control agents, in response to a caravan of migrants slowly crossing into Mexico to the United States in 2018.
In executive orders signed Monday, Trump suggested the military would help DHS with “detention space, transportation (including aircraft), and other logistical services.”
Active-duty U.S. troops are prohibited from performing law enforcement duties under the Posse Comitatus Act, a 19th-century federal law. So they cannot arrest or detain people at the border unless the president acts to invoke the Insurrection Act.
The Insurrection Act allows presidents to call upon reserve or active-duty military units to respond to unrest in the states, an authority that is not subject to review by the courts.
During the 2018 deployment, more than 7,000 active-duty troops were sent to Texas, Arizona and California, including military police, an assault helicopter battalion, various communications, medical and neighborhood units general, combat engineers, planners and public affairs units.
At the time, the Pentagon was adamant that active-duty troops would not enforce the law. So they spent much of their time transporting Border Patrol agents to and along the border, helping them erect additional vehicle barriers and fencing along the border, assisting them with communications and providing some security to border agent camps.
The military also provided Border Patrol agents with medical care, prepackaged meals and temporary housing.
Normally, during border deployments in support of the Department of Homeland Security, Pentagon officials ask DHS for details on what needs to be accomplished, and military leaders then decide which troops should leave and how many.
