Military to Be Deployed to U.S./Mexico Border

Pursuant to one of President Trump’s executive orders, the Pentagon will send 1,500 active-duty service members to the U.S.-Mexico border, report Lolita C. Baldor and Tara Copp of Associated Press.   

Per internal government memos, about 10,000 troops ultimately could be deployed to assist at the border, reports Camilo Montoya-Galvez of CBS News. 

The precise tasks to be assigned to the military deployed is not known.  Providing support for immigration enforcement personnel is one possibility and has been done in the past.  CNN notes that “[a] law that dates back more than a century known as `posse comitatus’ bars active-duty US troops from domestic law enforcement without authorization. Other laws and regulations have further clarified that troops can’t participate in activities such as making arrests and conducting searches, according to a Congressional Research Service analysis.”

KJ