The US military is sending troops to the border with Mexico in the wake of Trump’s immigration crackdown News about Donald Trump
The deployment is part of Trump’s executive order to declare a ‘national emergency’ on the US southern border.
The United States military has begun sending 1,500 active-duty troops to the country’s southern border with Mexico as part of President Donald Trump’s long-promised crackdown on immigration.
The White House confirmed the troop movement on Wednesday, although full details of the order have yet to be released.
Officials told US media that 500 Marines were among the military members involved. They are not expected to perform law enforcement duties as part of their role at the border.
The troop deployment was widely expected because immigration has been a hallmark of Trump’s second-term campaign.
Shortly after being sworn in on Monday, the Republican leader signed executive order declaring a “national emergency” on the border, echoing some of the heated rhetoric he delivered during the campaign.
“America’s sovereignty is under attack,” the executive order reads. “This invasion has caused widespread chaos and suffering in our country for the past 4 years.”
The order included provisions for the deployment of armed forces “to support the activities of the Secretary of Homeland Security in obtaining full operational control of the southern border.”
It also calls for the installation of additional physical barriers, as well as the use of unmanned aerial surveillance.
Trump’s communications team was quick to hail Wednesday’s troop deployment as a fulfillment of his campaign season promise.
“It’s something that President Trump campaigned on,” said Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary.
“The American people have been waiting for a time like this — for our Department of Defense to really take homeland security seriously.”
An estimated 2,500 members of the US National Guard and reserve forces are already at the border.
In addition, US Customs and Border Protection employs more than 45,000 people. Of fiscal year 202319,104 of these employees served as Border Patrol agents to secure areas between official ports of entry.
However, immigration advocates fear that an increased military presence at the border could discourage legitimate asylum claims or lead to the use of military tactics against civilians.
But Trump has argued that a military response is needed given the rates of irregular entry into the US.
He has also regularly linked immigration to increased crime, which the statistics do not support. Studies have repeatedly shown that undocumented people in the US commit crimes at a much lower rate than US-born citizens, including violent crimes.
Still, Trump used examples like that of Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student, to advance his proposals.
In February 2024, Riley was killed while jogging at the University of Georgia, and an undocumented Venezuelan was eventually found guilty of her murder.
On Wednesday, the House of Representatives passed the Laken Riley Act, named in her honor.
It requires Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to detain any undocumented person who is arrested or charged with a crime such as theft or robbery. Having already passed the Senate, the bill now heads to Trump’s desk, where he is expected to sign it. It will be the first major law of his administration.
But human rights advocates warn that the proposed law could violate due process of the accused, since those subject to the law should only be accused and not convicted of a crime.
