Trump administration set to deploy 1,500 troops to US-Mexico border
The ‘Outnumbered’ panelists analyze the Trump administration’s decision to send additional personnel to the southern border as part of immigration enforcement efforts.
The Pentagon is sending an additional 1,500 active-duty troops to the southern border by the end of the month, a U.S. official told Fox News on Wednesday.
A senior U.S. military official told reporters the 1,500 troops will consist of 1,000 Army personnel and 500 Marines.
“This represents a 60% increase in active-duty ground forces since President Trump was sworn-in Monday,” acting Defense Secretary Robert Salesses said in a statement late Wednesday.
There are already 2,500 U.S. service members stationed at the southern border. The troops were ordered there in May 2023 during the Biden administration under title 10 authorities, were approved by former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and are planned to be in place until the end of FY2025, according to a U.S. Northern Command spokesperson.
The 1,500 additional service members will be deployed to El Paso and San Diego, and are expected to arrive by the end of the week. A “couple hundred” were already en route, though it was not immediately known if they had yet arrived at their destinations.
The U.S. Pentagon is sending an additional 1,500 active-duty troops to the southern border by the end of the month, a U.S. official told Fox News on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)
The added troops will work on the placement of physical barriers and other border missions, though it has been years since the troops have worked on building physical barriers.
“We will also be providing aerial support, rotary wing and airlift capability and deploying some intelligence analysts for enhanced detection and monitoring activities and potentially some intelligence assets as well,” the senior U.S. military official said.
Some of the troops being deployed to the southern border were on call or actively working in support of the California wildfires, though they were released from that mission and are now being reassigned, the senior official added.
Migrants walk along the US-Mexico border fence in Lukeville, Ariz., Dec. 12, 2023. (Eric Thayer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Unlike previous border missions, the 500 Marines being sent will be armed and have magazines in their weapons. The Marines are also treating this deployment like any other emergency contingency, a senior Marine official told Fox News.
“Our response will be immediate. We are going in ready to respond. If the cartels shoot at us, we will not stand by,” the Marine official told Fox News Chief National Security correspondent Jennifer Griffin. “We will be taking whatever equipment we would send if a Marine Expeditionary Unit, or MEU, were deploying overseas.”
The first wave of 1,000 Army soldiers and 500 Marines will not be engaged in law enforcement, but the rules of engagement will allow for self-defense.
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The troops will also be taking airlift, helicopters and intelligence assets, though the first troops will likely assist with building barriers.
Additionally, there will be two C-17 and two C-130 airplanes to be used for deportation flights, the official said.
“The Department will provide military airlift to support DHS deportation flights of more than 5,000 illegal aliens from the San Diego, California, and El Paso, Texas sectors detained by Customs and Border Protection,” Salesses said in the statement. “DHS will provide inflight law enforcement, and the State Department will obtain the requisite diplomatic clearances and provide host-nation notification.”
The announcement will mark the third time that U.S. troops have been sent to the southern border in the last two years.
In May 2023, former President Joe Biden and Austin approved a request from former Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to send an additional 1,500 active-duty troops to the southern border for 90 days to assist with the influx of migrants after pandemic era health restrictions ended in May 2023.
In March 2024, Austin approved another DHS request for 2,500 service members, including national guardsmen under Title 10 duty status.
