The Trump administration’s plan to use active-duty U.S. military personnel to assist in the mass deportation of undocumented migrants appears to be similar to the support role troops played on the U.S.-Mexico border in 2018 and 2019 during the first Trump administration.
During his 2024 campaign, President-elect Donald Trump often mentioned the military as part of his plans to help with deportation, but was vague about how they would do so under existing legal authorities. On Monday, however, Trump confirmed that he planned to declare a national emergency to fulfill that campaign promise.
Additionally, Thomas Homan, Trump’s pick for Border Czar, described how US military assets will be a “force multiplier” in the exiles, but insisted they will perform “non-enforcement duties.” In other words, the military will not be involved in the arrests.
U.S. Marines secure the California-Mexico border near the Otay Mesa Port of Entry in California on November 14, 2018.
US Marine Corps
“They’re going to be used for non-enforcement roles, such as transportation, whether it’s ground or air, infrastructure, buildings, intelligence,” Homan said in an interview on Fox Business Network.
USA Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers performing those duties can replace the military because “it doesn’t require immigration authorities,” Homan explained.
He also described the military’s role as “a force multiplier to get more operatives, to put them on the streets where we need them,” and envisioned the US military assisting detainees on flights back to their countries.
“We hope that DOD will help us with air flights because there is a limited number of aircraft that ICE has contracts with, so DOD can definitely help with air flights around the world,” he said.
In this Jan. 29, 2024, file photo, the Texas National Guard sets up razor wire in the area of Shelby Park, a favorite entry point for irregular migrants, as guards continue to patrol the Rio Grande River.
Anadolu via Getty Images
Homan’s description was strikingly similar to previous active-duty deployments in 2018 and 2019 that supported US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) during Trump’s first term as caravans of migrants from Central America moved to the US border.
The mission was ordered in October 2018 and eventually deployed 6,100 active forces to the border, and soon after Trump declared a national emergency, allowing the US military to help build parts of the border wall.
In this Dec. 20, 2022, file photo, National Guard troops and state troopers stand on the edge of the U.S. border in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
Anadolu Agency via Getty Images, FILE
Pentagon officials stressed that the thousands of troops being deployed to the border would serve only in a support role for federal law enforcement and would not perform law enforcement duties. That role was in line with the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits the US military from performing domestic law enforcement duties.
The active duty troops joined the 2,350 National Guard already assisting CBP in the states of California, Texas and Arizona.
Initially, the active duty troops’ mission was to build housing for additional CBP personnel en route to the region, provide medical assistance, fly CBP personnel across the border region, and construct additional barriers and security barriers at 22 ports of entry. . Military police units were deployed to provide security for military construction crews working on the border and were the only forces allowed to be armed during the deployment.
What would have been a 45-day mission continued to be extended and continues to this day in a modified form and in much smaller numbers than in 2019.
After quickly meeting initial mission objectives, the Pentagon approved a new request from the Department of Homeland Security to establish an unarmed rapid reaction force to assist the CPB with incident control in the event of a migrant rush at a port of entry.
In April 2019, the role of active-duty troops was expanded to help drive high-capacity CBP vehicles to transport migrants; provide administrative support, including heating, meal distribution, and welfare monitoring of individuals in CBP custody; and assistance from ICE attorneys.
A month later, the Pentagon approved a DHS request to provide tent housing for 7,500 single adult migrants at six locations along the border. The tents would come from US military supplies and had to be erected by the US military. . In the end, DHS requested that active duty personnel install an additional 150 miles of wire across the border area beyond the 70 barriers that were set up during the first six weeks of the border assistance mission.
It’s a different reason than the one he declared in 2019 when Trump said he plans to declare a national emergency to allow mass deportation.
6,100 active duty troops were deployed to the border under existing authorities. Instead, the national emergency Trump declared in early 2019 was to help the US military build parts of the border wall that was one of his main campaign promises.
The National Emergency Act allows the military to undertake new military construction projects not specified by Congress, but only if previously appropriated funds are used for those projects.
In the end, the Pentagon was able to use $6.1 billion for the wall, including $3.6 billion in funds reallocated from other projects and $2.5 billion in funding for counternarcotics efforts.
Declaring a national emergency is not unusual and the Law on Emergencies has been invoked more than once. At the time of declaring the border, there were already about 30 states of emergency under the previous administrations.
