Military troops from 25 states and U.S. territories across the nation have deployed to the southern border at the request of the Biden administration.
The Biden administration has chosen to keep several thousand soldiers on the U.S.-Mexico border amid the worst illegal immigration crisis in national history.
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The decision by Washington to continue troop deployments, even at lower levels than during the Trump administration, indicates the White House is aware of the crisis at hand. Still, a show of force at the border with 2,500 troops is unlikely to satisfy Republicans who believe President Joe Biden is himself the cause of the surge.
Troops deployed over the past several weeks will remain in the four southern border states for 400 days, returning home around Thanksgiving next year. On the border, they will see firsthand what federal agents have experienced — more illegal immigrants arrested in Biden’s first 20 months in office than in former President Barack Obama’s entire two terms.
This deployment is one of 17 by the Defense Department in the past 21 years, under four separate administrations, U.S. Northern Command spokesman Lt. Commander Bill Lewis wrote in an email to the Washington Examiner.
In July this year, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin approved a request from DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas asking for troops to help CBP starting Oct. 1 through September 2023. National Guard soldiers from Republican-led and Democratic-led states are among the troops headed south.
As with prior deployments, the Pentagon has asked its U.S. Northern Command, a combatant command in North America, to oversee the operation.
“The Department of Defense’s mission-enhancing support enables Customs and Border Protection to address security challenges and conduct their law enforcement mission more efficiently along the southern border,” said Lewis.
To date, states sending troops include Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Texas, as well as the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, according to U.S. Northern Command.
Aviators from North Dakota, Michigan, Washington, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Montana, and the U.S. Virgin Islands have sent in pilots and aircraft.
“New Hampshire is grateful for the heroic men and women of our National Guard,” Gov. Chris Sununu (R-NH) said ahead of the troops’ departure. “They answered the call to serve during the COVID pandemic and are now answering our nation’s call — deploying to the ongoing humanitarian crisis along our southern border.”
Troops are deployed to California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. They will provide infrastructure and operational and aviation support to CBP, allowing Border Patrol agents to get back into the field.
They will also monitor and operate the Border Patrol vehicles that serve as mobile surveillance command posts. Soldiers use cameras and infrared radars to look for suspicious activity near the border day and night.
The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 prevents U.S. active-duty military from enforcing domestic laws unless explicitly authorized by the U.S. Congress. The National Guard soldiers are exempt from that law, but because they are deployed under Title 10 active-duty orders, they are barred from enforcing any federal laws.
When troops detect movement in the distance, they are to call in federal law enforcement to investigate.
In addition to the national request for support, Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) has dispatched the state’s Guardsmen, which Lewis noted operate at the governor’s orders, not U.S. Northern Command’s.
In late 2018, the Trump administration announced plans to send 5,200 troops to the border on top of the existing 2,100 ahead of the arrival of migrant caravans traveling from Central America.
Democratic governors in California and New Mexico started cutting back troops sent to the border in March 2019 because they disagreed with President Donald Trump’s assertion in February that the border was a national emergency.
Troops from several Republican-governed states returned to the border in mid-2021 at Abbott’s request but returned home later in the year due to financial and logistical constraints.
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The administrations of President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama both ordered the National Guard to the southern border to improve border security.
