Thousands of U.S. troops are being deployed to the border with Mexico, two days after President Donald Trump ordered the military to step up its presence there, according to officials familiar with the matter.
There are already around 2,200 “forces” on the border as part of Joint Task Force North, a mission of US Northern Command, headquartered in El Paso, Texas.
These agents support U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s work in the region, primarily performing logistical and clerical tasks such as data entry, detection and monitoring, and vehicle maintenance.
It is not yet clear which units are being sent to the border.
There is also a contingent of the United States National Guard on the border, in what is called Operation Lonestar, led by the Texas National Guard. There are approximately 4,500 members of this force assigned to the mission, according to the Texas Military Department.
The new soldiers sent to the border this week are expected to do similar work, sources said, contributing to the augmentation of Joint Task Force North.
They will help maintain operational readiness for the Border Patrol by assisting in command and control centers. In addition, they will provide more experts, according to sources.
The military must also help with air operations.
More military personnel must be sent to the border
More soldiers are expected to be sent to the border with Mexico in the coming weeks and months, according to one of the sources, with this first group “preparing the ground” for the others.
It is unclear whether the troops will be armed, but no active-duty soldiers are authorized to perform any type of law enforcement function, such as making arrests or seizing drugs.
Regarding immigrants, they can only help transport them to and around
A law dating back more than a century, known as “posse comitatus,” prohibits active-duty American soldiers from enforcing domestic law without authorization.
Other laws and regulations have further clarified that military personnel cannot participate in activities such as making arrests and conducting searches, according to an analysis by the Congressional Research Service.
President Trump said in an executive order on Monday, however, that he will decide within 90 days whether to invoke the so-called Insurrection Act on the border with Mexico, which would allow active-duty soldiers to be used in actions like this. .
Shifting focus to immigrants in the US
Federal resources along the U.S.-Mexico border have been stretched thin for years amid a large influx of immigrants.
The number of people crossing the southern border has dropped recently — there are between 1,100 and 1,300 immigrants crossing the border illegally each day, according to a US Department of Homeland Security official.
But with more Pentagon agents, sources hope that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has been assisting with actions at the border, can return to focusing on arresting illegal immigrants already inside the country.
