Biden orders 1,500 more troops to Mexico border amid migration surge

The Washington Post

The Biden administration will send 1,500 additional troops to augment security at the southern border, U.S. officials said Tuesday, as the looming end of pandemic-era immigration policies has officials bracing for a surge in illegal crossings.

The Department of Homeland Security said that it requested the 90-day deployment and that Defense Department personnel sent to the border will not interact with migrants. Instead, they will support U.S. Customs and Border Protection by performing “nonlaw enforcement duties” that include monitoring sensors and cameras, as well as “data entry and warehouse support,” according to a DHS statement.

“DoD personnel have never, and will not, perform law enforcement activities or interact with migrants or other individuals in DHS custody,” the statement said. “This support will free up DHS law enforcement personnel to perform their critical law enforcement missions.”

The additional 1,500 activeduty troops will join 2,500 National Guard troops who are already deployed along the U.S. southern border. The figures do not include the Texas National Guard members mobilized for a stateled mission called Operation Lone Star.

Some of the U.S. military forces will begin to arrive as soon as May 10, Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, told reporters. Active-duty Army and Marine Corps units will be deployed, Ryder said.

Ryder did not say which units would be mobilized but said the Pentagon was exploring options to replace them with reservist troops and send the active-duty troops home.

It is unusual to dispatch active-duty troops on domestic missions. The military’s border mission has largely been carried out by the National Guard, which has broader authorities to work on U.S. soil.

The Pentagon has had some concerns about supplying service members for what has become an annual commitment to DHS, including the impact it has on units available to deploy on combat missions. The upcoming mission “will not affect readiness,” Ryder said.

The mobilization was first reported by Fox News.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre played down the significance of the troop request during Tuesday’s briefing to reporters.

“DOD personnel have been supporting CBP at the border for almost two decades now,” she said. “So this is a common practice.”

Some immigration advocacy groups criticized the use of troops along the border, while other observers saw the deployment as a sign the administration is not prepared for the pandemic restrictions to lift.

“Deploying military personnel suggests a concerning lack of readiness for this transition,” said Andrea Flores, a former Biden aide who is now an immigration adviser to Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.).

DHS “had over two years to plan a gradual wind down of Title 42,” Flores wrote on Twitter. “Instead, the situation has escalated into a greater emergency that will, once again, lead to troops in border communities.”