President Trump’s deployment of thousands of active-duty troops to the U.S. border with Mexico could cost $60 million to $110 million, the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments said Friday.
The cost estimate includes nearly $7 million for aircraft and helicopters and depends on whether the deployment until mid-December includes 10,000 or 15,000 total troops, according to Travis Sharp, a defense budget analyst at CSBA.
The Pentagon had planned to send about 1,800 troops to Texas this week, with thousands more fanning out to locations in Arizona, New Mexico, and California. Trump said the total deployment to defend against an “invasion” by groups of migrants could be as high as 15,000.
Beyond the aviation costs, the Pentagon or the Department of Homeland Security will be paying for engineering, medical services, housing, and other expenses, Sharp said in an estimate provided to the Washington Examiner.
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A force of 10,000 service members could cost about $60-$75 million, and the higher estimate by the president could ring in at about $90-$110 million, he said. The figures are based on past estimates by the Defense Department comptroller and the Government Accountability Office.
That equals a daily cost of $112 to $143 per service member.
The Pentagon has said it has no firm estimate of the cost of the border mission, called Operation Faithful Patriot, and has not decided specifically where it will get the funding.
A separate border mission by the National Guard includes 2,100 troops who have been deployed to the border since April. They also have no final price tag.
