THE CHAIR FORCE? The 1,500 active-duty troops President Joe Biden is sending to the southern border are expected to arrive next week just before the May 11 expiration of Title 42, the pandemic provision that, since 2020, has allowed border agents to turn away asylum-seekers and other foreign nationals attempting to enter the U.S.
Call them the “clerical corps” or maybe “the chair force.” They won’t be on the front lines or carrying guns. Instead, they will serve mostly as overqualified office workers. “These personnel will be performing administrative tasks, like data entry and warehouse support. They will not be performing law enforcement functions or interacting with immigrants or migrants,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. “This will free up Border Patrol agents to perform their critical law enforcement duties.”
While the Pentagon is saluting smartly, at the same time, it’s working to replace the combat-ready troops with civilians or reserve troops. “For 90 days, these 1,500 military personnel, who will be sourced from the active-duty component, will fill critical capability gaps such as ground-based detection and monitoring,” said Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman. “The department is also evaluating options on how we might replace these deploying forces in stride with other sources, to include, potentially, forces from the Reserve component and contracted support.”
There are already 2,500 National Guard members at the border, and Ryder sought to portray the deployment of active-duty troops as nothing unusual. “I would point out that DOD has supported DHS on the southwest border for 18 of the last 22 years and every year since 2006,” he said. But when former President Donald Trump ordered 800 active-duty troops to the border in a similar support role in 2018, it drew howls of protests from Democrats.
ACTIVE-DUTY TROOPS HEADING TO SOUTHERN BORDER WILL LARGELY DO ‘SUPPORT TASKS’
THE SURGE IS UNDERWAY: Reporting from El Paso, Texas, Washington Examiner Homeland Security Reporter Anna Giaritelli said crowds of migrants are already overwhelming authorities and tent cities have sprung up around the border town. “There are as many if not more people on the street as in December,” said Giaritelli in a tweet including video of migrants milling around the Sacred Heart Church in downtown El Paso.
“Mostly men line the streets outside the Church,” she reported in another video. “They receive free food throughout the day. Lots of cigarette smoking. When police come by, the men will jump behind the short fence because that area is technically church property and therefore off limits for Border Patrol to make arrests because the men are at a place of worship — even though they do not enter the building or attend daily mass.”
“As of this morning, U.S. Border Patrol had 23,000 people in its custody nationwide. They’ve had several very large groups cross the border over the past 48 hours. Rio Grande Valley has 6,500 in custody followed by El Paso with 5,000,” she tweeted this morning.
The dramatic uptick in the number of immigrants attempting to enter the country illegally is coming eight days before the deadline for asylum restrictions to be lifted.
UP TO 1,200 DHS EMPLOYEES TO SCREEN ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS FOR ASYLUM
‘UNACCEPTABLE’: Biden’s last-minute decision to deploy active-duty troops in response to a problem that has been months and years in the making has drawn bipartisan criticism from lawmakers on Capitol Hill, albeit for different reasons.
“The Biden Administration’s militarization of the border is unacceptable,” said New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in a statement. “There is already a humanitarian crisis in the Western Hemisphere, and deploying military personnel only signals that migrants are a threat that require our nation’s troops to contain. Nothing could be further from the truth.”
“This decision is just another example of the Biden administration planning poorly for a crisis that has been long in the making,” said Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker, the top Republican on the Armed Services Committee. “The President and his team knew that the end of Title 42 risks an unprecedented migrant surge at the southwest border – yet the Department of Homeland Security waited until virtually the last minute to request Department of Defense support.”
“By failing to plan for this entirely foreseeable request, the Department of Defense will now be forced to deploy active-duty troops, which will have negative impacts on readiness,” added Wicker in his statement.
The Pentagon insists the three-month deployment of 1,500 troops out of an active-duty force of nearly 1.2 million will barely be noticed. “It will not affect readiness,” said Ryder at the Pentagon.
Both Wicker and Menendez agree Biden should have acted sooner. “President Biden could have avoided this entire situation by taking seriously the crisis at our border. It is time to return to the strong border policies of the previous administration and work now to finish the wall, support law enforcement, and target the cartels,” said Wicker.
“I have offered them a strategic and comprehensive plan, which they have largely ignored,” said Menendez. “Trying to score political points or intimidate migrants by sending the military to the border caters to the Republican Party’s xenophobic attacks on our asylum system.”
BIDEN SENDING 1,500 ACTIVE-DUTY TROOPS TO BORDER AHEAD OF TITLE 42 ENDING
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HAPPENING TODAY: The Pentagon will be pulling out all the stops today, staging a full honors ceremony on the parade field outside the River Entrance, complete with cannon fire and a review of troops as Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin hosts Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to the Pentagon at 10:30 a.m.
The meeting between Austin and the head of state comes as the two countries have renewed ties that were frayed under the combative former President Rodrigo Duterte.
“It’s important to point out that we’re standing at a transformational moment in the U.S.-Philippines alliance,” said Ryder at yesterday’s Pentagon briefing. “We’ve made great strides recently in advancing our bilateral defense relationship, from announcing four new Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement sites to successfully completing the largest ever iteration of our annual bilateral exercise, Balikatan.”
PHILIPPINES-US ALLIANCE MOVES PAST DUTERTE DYSFUNCTION
THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING ARMY: In Senate testimony yesterday, Army leaders ruefully admitted they have not yet solved the puzzle of how to get enough young people to enlist to meet its recruiting goals for the year.
“We are going to fall short,” Army Secretary Christine Wormuth told the Senate Appropriations Committee. “We are in a better position for example at this time last year than we were in the previous year. At the same time, the chief and I set a very ambitious goal of 65,000 new recruits this year. And we are not going to make that goal.”
The Army is authorized to have 485,000 soldiers, but Wormuth had to admit that despite new recruiting initiatives, including a “Be All You Can Be” advertising campaign, a future soldier prep course, and a soldier referral program, the Army is not going to reach that number anytime soon.
“The difficult recruiting landscape we face didn’t happen in a year, and it’s going to take us more than a year to turn this around,” said Wormuth. “The reality is our end strength right now is about 455,000.”
Wormuth said the Army is looking for ways to downsize without lowering standards or affecting readiness. “We’ve looked over the years at the units that we have used very heavily as opposed to those that we may have used much less frequently. And those are areas where we can probably do some thinning out.”
“So for example … we basically went and looked at all the different types of soldiers in units and said, ‘Do we need to have 60 cooks or can we use 40 cooks?’” she testified. “We do not want a hollow Army … we do not want to have tiered readiness. So part of the hard work of the Army in the next couple of years is going to be bringing down that overall structure.”
FUTURE OF ALL-VOLUNTEER ARMY IN PERIL AS GEN Z SHUNS MILITARY SERVICE
MILLEY: RISK OF ESCALATION IS HIGH: As Ukraine continues to express frustration at the refusal of the United States and other Western powers to supply modern fighter and aircraft and longer-range weapons, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley is warning that every decision has to be weighed against the risk of pushing Russian President Vladimir Putin into acting on his nuclear doctrine of “escalating to de-escalate.”
“Every single day, we are always — any action we take, or any action we see the Russians taking, we are always calculating the possibility of escalation. Why? Because the consequences of escalation are so severe, and the consequences of armed conflict between the United States and Russia, or any of NATO and Russia, would be devastating for both sides,” Milley said in a wide-ranging podcast interview with Foreign Policy.
“Russia does not want a war with NATO or the United States, and NATO and the United States don’t want a war with Russia. So it’s in everyone’s interests in that regard, and Ukraine certainly doesn’t want that scale of war in its territory,” said Milley. “Having said that, the possibility of escalation is very real. Wars are highly emotional; there’s a tremendous amount of fear, there’s pride, there’s interest … So the possibility of escalation is always there.”
PUTIN’S DANGEROUS NUCLEAR DOCTRINE: A LICENSE TO KILL
TUBERVILLE: WHAT’S UP WITH SPACECOM HQ? Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) is getting a little antsy about the time it’s taking to finalize the location of the headquarters of the U.S. Space Command, which the Air Force has tentatively indicated will relocate from Colorado to Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama.
“I hope this thing doesn’t get political. It looks like it is. You know, we’ve been waiting for two years for a decision,” Tuberville pressed Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall at yesterday’s Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.
“I don’t have anything new to report today, Senator Tuberville,” Kendall replied. “We’re hopeful that we’ll be able to get a decision out as soon as possible, but I don’t have any new information.”
The move of the headquarters has been the subject of debate about whether former President Donald Trump influenced the Air Force to pick Alabama, a red state that voted for him, over Colorado, a blue state that went for Biden.
A DOD Inspector General’s report found no irregularities in the process used by the Air Force, but in an appearance on a syndicated radio show in Alabama, Trump bragged that he alone decided where to move the headquarters.
“I sent [it] to Alabama,” Trump said. “I hope you know that. (They) said they were looking for a home and I single-handedly said, ‘Let’s go to Alabama.’ They wanted it. I said, ‘Let’s go to Alabama. I love Alabama.’”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The Rundown
Washington Examiner: Biden sending 1,500 active-duty troops to border ahead of Title 42 ending
Washington Examiner: Active-duty troops heading to southern border will largely do ‘support tasks’
Washington Examiner: Up to 1,200 DHS employees to screen illegal immigrants for asylum
Washington Examiner: GOP leadership debuts landmark border bill that excludes Dan Crenshaw demands
Washington Examiner: Ukraine’s counteroffensive a fight to get more weapons from West
Washington Examiner: Kremlin dismisses US assessment of Russian casualties since December
Washington Examiner: Ukraine escalates sabotage operations ahead of counteroffensive
Washington Examiner: US Marine veteran killed in Bakhmut, Ukraine, while evacuating civilians
Washington Examiner: Army secretary says another recruiting goal shortfall is coming
Washington Examiner: Navy seeks to attract ‘diverse talent’ amid recruitment crisis with drag queen influencer
Washington Examiner: West should view China’s threat to Taiwan as ‘threats against us all’: Czech foreign minister
Washington Examiner: McCaul’s subpoena deadline for Afghanistan documents passes without State Department compliance
Washington Examiner: Opinion: Pentagon must reject absurd F-35 performance-based logistics contract
Defense News: Lockheed Eyes New F-35 Parts Deal, But Can It Handle Wartime Demands?
Washington Post: Spike in Russian combat deaths fuels fears of worse carnage to come
Washington Post: Zelensky says White House told him nothing about Discord intelligence leaks
Foreign Policy: How to Avoid a Great-Power War A Conversation With General Mark Milley
Bloomberg: US Navy Is Hobbled by Failures as the Risk of Conflict With China Looms
Reuters: U.S. Stands With Philippines Against Chinese ‘Intimidation’ In S. China Sea – Official
Bloomberg: China Sends Drones Circling Taiwan In New Surveillance Tactic
Defense One: Where’d the Money Go? Lawmakers Press Air Force on Planned Radar Plane
Breaking Defense: Turkey Dubs 5th Gen Fighter ‘KAAN,’ Sees Other Domestic Aircraft Milestones
Air Force Times: Air Force Prepares to Retire U-2 Spy Planes in 2026
AP: The balloon that flew over Hawaii? US says it’s not China’s
AP: No cancer risk found at nuclear bases so far, Air Force says
Air & Space Forces Magazine: Kendall: Ratio of Fighters to Bombers May Shift Toward Bombers in the Future
Air & Space Forces Magazine: As USAF Considers a Blended-Wing Body Tanker, New Startup Reveals Its Concept
Air & Space Forces Magazine: Kendall and Brown: JATM Will Start Production This Year, Equip Collaborative Combat Aircraft
AP: Navy commander pulled from job after SEAL candidate
Forbes: Army Chief Stresses Need To Continue Improving “Enduring Fleet” Of Helicopters
19fortyfive.com: Opinion: Joe Biden Needs A New Ukraine War Strategy Now
Calendar
WEDNESDAY | MAY 3
8:30 a.m. One West Pratt St., Baltimore, Md. — Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association 2023 TechNetCyber conference, with Defense CIO John Sherman; Rob Vietmeyer, chief software officer, Defense Department; and National Guard CIO Kenneth McNeill, director, Command, Control, Communications, and Computers Systems Directorate https://events.afcea.org/afceacyber23/Public/enter.aspx
8:30 a.m. — Henry Stimson Center virtual discussion: “Nuclearization Debates: What Can South Korea Learn from South Asia?” with Ruhee Neog, director, New Delhi’s Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies; Nicholas Miller, associate professor at Dartmouth College; and Feroz Khan, research professor at the Naval Postgraduate School https://www.stimson.org/event/nuclearization-debates
10 a.m. 192 Dirksen — Senate Appropriations Energy and Water Development Subcommittee hearing: “A Review, FY2024 Budget Request for the U.S. Department of Energy, including the National Nuclear Security Administration,” with testimony from Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm; and Jill Hruby, undersecretary, National Nuclear Security Administration https://www.appropriations.senate.gov/hearings
10 a.m. 406 Dirksen — Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing: “The 2024 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers budget and implementation of Water Resources Development Act of 2022,” with testimony from Michael Connor, assistant Army secretary for civil works; and Lt. Gen. Scott Spellmon, chief engineer, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers http://epw.senate.gov
10 a.m. — SETA Foundation at Washington D.C. discussion: “Turkiye’s Upcoming Elections,” with Burhanettin Duran, general coordinator, SETA Foundation; Talha Kose, chair, Political Science and International Relations Department, Ibn Haldun University; and moderated by Kilic Kanat, research director, SETA Foundation https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register
10 a.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW — Center for Strategic and International Studies discussion: “Strengthening Deterrence: Parliamentary Perspectives on Japan’s Defense Strategy,” with former Japanese Defense Minister Onodera Itsunori, member, Japanese House of Representatives; former Japanese Minister of Finance Otsuka Taku, member, Japanese House of Representatives; and former Japanese Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs Kokuba Konosuke, member, Japanese House of Representatives https://www.csis.org/events/strengthening-deterrence-parliamentary-perspectives
2 p.m. — Jewish Institute for National Security of America virtual discussion on a new report: “Build It and They Will Come: A U.S. Strategy for Integrating Middle East Air and Missile Defenses,” focusing on threats from Iran, with Rep. Robert Wittman (R-VA).; Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL); retired Air Force Gen. Gilmary Michael Hostage, former commander of Air Combat Command; retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Joseph Guastella, former Air Force deputy chief of staff for operations; retired Army Lt. Gen. David Mann, former commanding general of U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command; and retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Henry Obering, former director, Missile Defense Agency https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register
3 p.m. — Center for the Study, Presidency and Congress virtual conversation with retired Australian Army Maj. Gen. Mick Ryan, author, White Sun War, The Campaign For Taiwan, a fictional account of a future war between the U.S. and China over Taiwan; and Joshua Huminski, director, Mike Rogers Center for Intelligence and Global Affairs https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register
6:30 p.m. 1307 L St. NW — New York University Brademas Center event: “The Clear Blue Skies: Diaries from Ukraine,” with actors reading excerpts from the diaries of Ukrainian children and teenagers chronicling the Russian-Ukrainian war, followed by a discussion on the war with policy experts. https://nyu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN
6:30 p.m. 1957 E St. NW — George Washington University Space Policy Institute discussion: “Space Security in an Era of Rising Competition,” with Brian Weeden, director of program planning, Secure World Foundation; Kari Bingen, director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies’s Aerospace Security Project; and Aaron Bateman, professor at the Space Policy Institute https://calendar.gwu.edu/event/space_security
THURSDAY | MAY 4
5:30 a.m. — Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies virtual discussion: “NATO and the Evolving Transatlantic Security Agenda,” with Benedetta Berti, head of policy planning at the Office of the Secretary General of NATO https://sais.jhu.edu/campus-events
9 a.m. 201 Waterfront St., National Harbor, Md. — 2023 SelectUSA Investment Summit with Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm; and Secretary of State Antony Blinken https://www.selectusasummit.us
9:30 a.m. G-50 Dirksen — Senate Armed Services Committee hearing: “Worldwide Threats,” with testimony from Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines; and Army Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier, director, Defense Intelligence Agency https://www.armed-services.senate.gov/hearings
12 p.m. — Hudson Institute virtual discussion: “Reaching an Endgame in Ukraine,” with former Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin, co-founder, Center for National Resilience and Development; and Reka Szemerkenyi, senior adviser on transatlantic strategy at the International Republican Institute https://www.hudson.org/events/reaching-endgame-ukraine
3:30 p.m. — Center for Strategic and International Studies virtual discussion: “The modernization of the U.S.-Philippines alliance,” with Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos https://www.csis.org/events/conversation
3 p.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW — Center for Strategic and International Studies and the U.S. Studies Center discussion: “Allies and Geopolitical Competition in the Indo-Pacific Region” https://www.csis.org/events/allies-and-geopolitical-competition
4:15 p.m. — Hudson Institute virtual event: “A Conversation with Gen. Thomas Bussiere, commander, U.S. Air Force Global Strike Command,” with Rebeccah Heinrichs, Hudson senior fellow and director, Keystone Defense Initiative https://www.eventbrite.com/e/conversation-with-gen-bussiere
FRIDAY | MAY 5
9 a.m. 1030 15th St. NW — Atlantic Council discussion: “Ideas to Implementation: Priorities for NATO’s Vilnius Summit,” with Lithuanian Minister of National Defense Arvydas Anusauskas; and former NATO Deputy Secretary-General Rose Gottemoeller https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/event/ideas-to-implementation
11 a.m. — Foundation for the Defense of Democracies virtual event: “Ukraine’s War of Independence: A Conversation with Amb. Oksana Markarova,” with Clifford May, founder and president, FDD https://www.fdd.org/events/2023/05/05/ukraines-war-of-independence
6:30 p.m. Sedona, Arizona — McCain Institute 2023 Sedona Forum, 6:30 p.m., with the theme “Indispensable Power,” May 5-6 https://www.mccaininstitute.org/resources/events
WEDNESDAY | MAY 10
2:30 a.m. EDT Brussels, Belgium — NATO’s highest military authority, the Military Committee, meets in person at NATO headquarters, with opening remarks by Dutch Navy Adm. Rob Bauer, chair, NATO Military Committee; and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/news
10 a.m. — Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies “Schriever Spacepower Series,” with Maj. Gen. Shawn Bratton, commander, Space Training and Readiness Command https://mitchellaerospacepower.org/event/5-10
11:30 a.m. EDT Brussels, Belgium — Press conference with Dutch Navy Adm. Rob Bauer, chair, NATO Military Committee; NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg; U.S. Army Gen. Christopher Cavoli, supreme allied commander Europe, and French Gen. Philippe Lavigne, supreme allied commander transformation https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/news
2:30 p.m. 1775 Massachusetts Ave. NW — Brookings Institution in-person/virtual discussion: “The U.S. Coast Guard in an increasingly complex world,” with Adm. Linda Fagan, Coast Guard commandant; and Melanie Sisson, fellow, Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology, Brookings https://connect.brookings.edu/register-to-watch-us-coast-guard
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Russia does not want a war with NATO or the United States, and NATO and the United States don’t want a war with Russia. So it’s in everyone’s interests in that regard, and Ukraine certainly doesn’t want that scale of war in its territory. So it’s in everyone’s interests not to escalate. Having said that, the possibility of escalation is very real.”
Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in a wide-ranging interview with Foreign Policy.
