Biden sending 1,500 troops to southern border as Title 42 ends — but not to secure the border
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Tuesday agreed to send 1,500 US soldiers to the Mexico border at the Biden administration’s request — though only to perform administrative tasks with Title 42 set to end next week.
“For 90 days, this 1,500 military personnel will fill critical capability gaps, such as ground-based detection and monitoring, data entry, and warehouse support, until [Border Patrol agents] can address these needs through contracted support,” said Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder.
The Department of Homeland Security requested the Pentagon’s assistance to get ahead of an expected surge of migrants when Title 42 expires on May 11.
The active-duty units will focus on logistical duties rather than enforcement, leaving Border Patrol to devote their resources to stemming the coming tide of tens of thousands of illegal border-crossers.
“Military personnel will not directly participate in law enforcement activities,” Ryder said. “This deployment to the border is consistent with other forms of military support to DHS over many years.”
Service members will start arriving in the border region on May 10, Ryder said. They will be armed but only permitted to use their weapons for self-defense.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre claimed Tuesday that troops have been sent to the border “for almost two decades now” – but those forces are typically drawn from National Guard.
It’s rare for the Pentagon to deploy active-duty troops domestically.
With just a week before troops are set to deploy, Ryder said the Pentagon chose to send active-duty forces over reserve units in order to get them to the border faster.
“This is about being responsive. The ability to rapidly provide support from our active duty forces is really the key here,” Ryder said. “Calling up reserve component forces involves some time associated with that, and so by tasking the active duty forces were able to meet this request very urgently and support DHS.”
In the meantime, the Pentagon will “continue to explore other options” such as deploying reserve units or hiring contractors “so that we could return those active duty forces back to their home stations,” Ryder said.
What is Title 42 and what does its end mean for US border immigration?
What is Title 42?
Title 42 is a federal health measure enforced by the US Border Patrol. It allows the agency to kick certain migrants out of the US and return them to Mexico. This includes asylum seekers, who under international law have the legal right to make an asylum claim in America.
Currently, migrants who cross the border illegally and who are from Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua or Venezuela are subject to Title 42 and could be sent to Mexico.
How did Title 42 start?
President Donald Trump invoked the law in 2020 at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, asking the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to issue the policy. The Trump administration made the case that keeping migrants out of the country would slow down the spread of infections and maintain the safety of federal agents encountering migrants.
What has happened with Title 42 under Biden?
When President Biden took over, he continued to enforce Title 42 with one important change from his predecessor. Biden said Border Patrol agents were only allowed to expel migrants from certain countries under his direction. That meant migrants seeking asylum from countries like Cuba and Venezuela could still seek asylum if they arrived at the border and stay in the US while their cases were decided in court — unless they had a criminal record.
What is happening with Title 42 now?
Title 42 is supposed to be a health policy, not an immigration law. It will end at 11:59 p.m. May 11, when the Biden administration ends all COVID-19-related policies.
Why is it controversial?
Many have called for the policy’s end, saying it’s illegal and that international law guarantees people the right to seek asylum.
Others, like Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, warn that the southern border could see up to 13,000 migrants per day crossing with the intention to stay in the country when the measure ends.
What would the end of Title 42 mean for immigration into the US?
It’s unclear exactly how many people have been expelled under Title 42 because there have been scores of people who have attempted to enter the country numerous times and been rejected again and again, but the US Border Patrol said it made an all-time high of more than 2.3 million arrests at the border in the last fiscal year. Forty percent of people who were expelled from the country were ejected under the rules of Title 42.
News of the deployment comes after Biden on Thursday signed an executive order empowering the Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security to deploy active duty and reserve military and Coast Guard personnel to address “international drug trafficking.”
The authority comes from a Dec. 15, 2021, Biden-declared national emergency to “address the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy and economy of the United States posed by international drug trafficking.”
After Biden issued the order last week, DHS asked for the Defense Department to send troops to assist at the Southern border, according to Ryder.
“In light of the changes on May 11 and the anticipated surge, DHS did reach out and request this support,” Ryder said. “[Currently] there are approximately 2,500 US military who are National Guard forces, they are focused, again, on supporting CBP with detection and monitoring and aviation support.”
House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.) criticized the deployment, saying the move will only facilitate more migrants’ moves into the county.
“By having our men and women in uniform do administrative work to help move illegal aliens into the interior of the country quicker, President Biden is now using our troops to facilitate the demise of our homeland security, instead of securing our borders,” he told The Post.
Over the last few days, the Border Patrol has recorded tens of thousands of migrants crossing the southern border illegally as the Title 42 enforcement period winds down.
The Post revealed last week that around 40,000 migrants who intend to seek asylum in the US are gathered in Juarez, Mexico, waiting to enter El Paso, Texas once the policy expires.
Former El Paso Mayor Dee Margo said the troops will provide much-needed relief to the city
He told The Post: “We need all the help we can get. The manpower for CBP is insufficient. They need help.”
Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz said Monday that in the three days prior, agents had made 22,220 apprehensions, including two sex offenders, one convicted murderer, and one gang member.
Agents had also seized 806 pounds of methamphetamine, 283 pounds of marijuana, 62 pounds of cocaine, and three firearms.
Green accused DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Biden of “deliberately and intentionally creating this historic crisis” by removing “key policies that promoted law and order and ensured the security of the US homeland.”
“Don’t be fooled, It is amazing the lengths they will go to avoid implementing the last administration’s successful border security policies,” the chairman told The Post.
More than 2 million illegal immigrants have been apprehended at the southern border and returned to Mexico under the policy, which was enacted by then-President Donald Trump at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Trump administration deployed more than 5,000 active-duty troops to the southern border in October 2018 to counter a caravan of at least 3,500 Central American migrants traveling north.
Trump described the group at the time as carrying out an “invasion of our country.”
At the time, Democrats criticized the use of active-duty troops for such a mission, claiming the service members were being used for political purposes.
Trump senior adviser Stephen Miller reportedly considered a far greater troop deployment at the southern border in spring 2020, pressing the Department of Homeland Security to seal ports of entry to the US with as many as 250,000 soldiers, according to the New York Times.
Though critical of his predecessor’s immigration policy, Biden has continued to keep thousands of troops deployed at the southern border.
There are currently roughly 2,700 National Guard members at the border.
The president signed executive orders in February 2021 that ended Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy for prosecuting illegal border crossers, as well as another to unite parents with migrant children detained at the border.
Last week, the Biden administration announced a new program under which prospective migrants will be told to go to processing centers in Guatemala and Colombia to be prescreened and potentially allowed into the US to await final rulings on their claims of persecution in their homelands.
Mayorkas estimated that about 5,000 to 6,000 people per month will be processed through these centers, saying that “this is a process that will scale up over time.”
The new legal pathway is meant to encourage migrants to wait their turn rather than rush to the border and try to enter the US on foot.
Green said such policy changes contributed to the migrant crisis after federal funding levels for enforcement remained largely unchanged from the Trump administration.
“On Jan. 20, 2021, the number of Border Patrol agents didn’t change and the [Customs and Border Patrol]-enacted budget has remained the same,” he told The Post. “What changed was the removal of key policies that promoted law and order and ensured the security of the US homeland.”
He suggested the deployment could mean Biden privately – if not publicly – views the border issue as a major threat to national security.
“The real question remains,” he asked, “why would President Biden be sending the military somewhere that isn’t in ‘crisis’ mode?”
