Military units from across the country are scrambling to get in place along the southern border following President Donald Trump’s order earlier this week, and U.S. aircraft have already begun flying deported immigrants out of the country as the mission rapidly moves along.
After the Department of Defense announced Wednesday that 1,500 troops would be initially assigned to the border mission, what bases and units they were coming from and what other forces could be included remained questions.
By Friday, U.S. Northern Command — which was tasked with overseeing the mission — began to provide some details but noted in a statement that “the exact number of personnel will fluctuate as units rotate personnel and as additional forces are tasked to deploy once planning efforts are finalized.”
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Since Trump issued his executive order to use even more active-duty troops to secure the border late Monday, the Pentagon — largely led by placeholder officials — has moved fast to comply with the presidential mandate, which set aggressive deadlines for military planners.
During that effort, officials have struggled to articulate many of the details that are normally a fundamental part of any military deployment, even as this one reportedly could ultimately swell to as many as 10,000 troops and as service members were already beginning to head to the border.
“If you see in the executive order, the 30-day timeline for a Level 3 plan, that’s an incredibly aggressive timeline,” an official from U.S. Northern Command, or NORTHCOM, told Military.com on Friday. “Level 3” refers to plans that are one step below a fully formed operational document.
They noted that plans like that “usually take way longer to come together, so it’s all hands on deck.”
Multiple service and command officials spoke to Military.com on condition of anonymity to explain details of a rapidly evolving military situation.
On Wednesday afternoon, the Pentagon held its first briefing to offer details about the initial wave of 1,500 troops being mobilized to the southern border.
While reporters were told that the breakdown would be 1,000 soldiers from the Army and 500 Marines, the senior defense official who spoke to reporters stressed that it was just “36 hours after the [executive order], so that’s something to keep in mind.” No details about what units would be tapped were offered.
That evening, a Marine Corps official told Military.com that 500 Marines from 1st Marine Division out of Camp Pendleton, California, were prepared to respond to the border, with preparations in place to surge that number to up to 2,500 personnel if called upon to do so.
It would take until Friday for NORTHCOM to offer the same level of detail for the Army when, in a statement, the combatant command named 13 Army units from Texas, Kentucky, New York, Georgia, Kansas, Colorado and Washington state making up the 1,000 soldiers, as well as the battalions and units that comprise the 500 Marines being deployed.
Pentagon officials also told reporters Wednesday that all 500 Marines were being pulled from the Federal Emergency Management Agency mission to support California’s wildfire response. But on Friday, the Marine Corps clarified to Military.com that, while a “majority” of the Marines being sent to the border had previously been tapped to respond to wildfires in California, “there are a few exceptions to that,” including shifting certain capabilities and replacing Marines coming up on the end of their service contracts.
Amid this fluid situation was also an order from Acting Defense Secretary Robert Salesses to the services to pause all social media use though, in a statement Thursday, he did say that the “pause does not apply for content and imagery relative to the DoD’s current border security operations.”
Marines Move Out
While officials were hesitant to offer early details on which specific units were actually heading the border, images of the response effort were already being made available online.
Marines were photographed laying concertina wire at the border as early as Thursday and, on Friday, the White House posted a video on social media of Marine Corps MV-2B Ospreys landing and offloading Marines at what appeared to be the border with Mexico as agents from the U.S. Border Patrol looked on.
Another Marine Corps official told Military.com that an initial element of about 50 Marines arrived early Thursday morning in San Diego, which is about 30 minutes north of California’s southern border. They said that roughly 450 other Marines from the unit, specifically detachments from 1st Combat Engineer and 7th Combat Engineer battalions, were staged and ready to move from Camp Pendleton — further north in the state — once staging areas were set.
As of Friday afternoon, all 500 Marines who staged at Camp Pendleton were at the border, a Marine Corps official told Military.com.
Two Ospreys from the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing out of Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, near San Diego, reconnoitered landing zones at California’s southern border Thursday afternoon, another Marine Corps official told Military.com on Friday.
Marines with VMM-161 and MWSS-373, Osprey and aviation ground support squadrons, all belonging to 3rd MAW, met with Border Patrol agents on the ground before returning to MCAS Miramar as part of an effort to scout potential landing areas for delivering supplies and personnel if necessary for future operations, according to two Marine officials.
Army’s Rapid Response Force
Multiple military officials also told Military.com that the 82nd Airborne’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team — one of the nation’s most visible units and the military’s rapid response force — is also preparing to deploy to the southern border.
The use of the 82nd Airborne is significant since the unit is typically used to respond to major military crises that threaten U.S. troops, citizens or allies abroad. In recent years, it has been tapped to respond to escalating tensions with Iran, put on alert and deployed to Europe ahead of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and took part in the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Officials also said that part of the 10th Mountain Division out of Fort Drum in New York may serve as a headquarters element for the response at the border.
However, officials at the Pentagon were not ready to make the announcement Friday.
“At this time, there are no units from the 82nd Airborne Division or the 10th Mountain Division mobilizing to support the mission at the southern border,” a defense official told Military.com, but they added that the Pentagon was “actively planning and assessing the situation.”
The Washington Post reported Friday that one plan under consideration was a dramatic and public road march of Stryker armored combat vehicles to the border.
Air Force Repatriation Flights
Meanwhile, Air Force C-17 Globemaster IIIs, one from the 60th Air Mobility Wing out of Fort Bliss, Texas, and another out of Tuscon, Arizona, according to photo captions, were flying immigrants out of the country as recently as Wednesday evening. The Department of Homeland Security provided officers for the flight.
U.S. Transportation Command is leading the Air Force’s airlift efforts for the border mission.
“We can confirm that overnight two Air Force C-17s conducted repatriation flights from the U.S. to Guatemala,” a defense official confirmed to Military.com.
Images of the deportation flights were posted by the Department of Defense on Wednesday. Additionally, images of UH-72 Lakota helicopters preparing for and operating surveillance flights out of New Mexico were also broadcast.
“This is just the beginning of something more and something new,” the NORTHCOM official told Military.com on Friday, adding that the combatant command was “in the middle of an aggressive 30-day planning effort that will be looking across domains and across components to provide the solution of securing the border.”
“This is the sole focus of the NORTHCOM planners, and they’re not only looking at the comfortable domain of land, we are looking at land, maritime, air, cyber — everything.”
— Steve Beynon contributed to this report.
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