The Pentagon Won't Track Troops Deployed on U.S. Soil. So We Will.

The Intercept

3 days ago

In his first six months in office, President Donald Trump has overseen the deployment of nearly 20,000 federal troops on American soil, including personnel from the National Guard, the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, and the Marines, according to the Pentagon's public statements.
But the true number of troops deployed may be markedly higher. When asked directly, the Army said it has no running tally of how many troops have been deployed. These federal forces have been operating in at least five states — Arizona, California, Florida, New Mexico, and Texas — with more deployments on the horizon, all in service of the Trump administration's anti-immigrant agenda.
Experts say military involvement in domestic anti-immigrant operations undermines American democracy and has nudged the United States closer to a genuine police state.
'If the president can use the military as a domestic police force entirely under his control, it can be used as a tool of tyranny and oppression.'
'This level of involvement of the military in civilian law enforcement in the interior of the country is unprecedented — and really dangerous,' said Elizabeth Goitein, senior director of the Brennan Center's liberty and national security program, who told The Intercept that recent deployments violated the Posse Comitatus Act, a bedrock 19th-century law seen as fundamental to the democratic tradition in America which bars federal troops from participating in civilian law enforcement.
She added: 'If the president can use the military as a domestic police force entirely under his control, it can be used as a tool of tyranny and oppression. We've seen it all around the world and throughout history.'
The norms surrounding the use of military force within U.S. borders are eroding, and the executive branch is operating with free rein, emboldened by a legislature and judiciary seemingly uninterested in curtailing its actions.
These soldiers have been sent to patrol the border, put down popular protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations, participate in ICE raids, and assist in immigration enforcement missions from coast to coast. Here, to the extent of what is known so far, is what they've been up to.
President Donald Trump began the further militarization of America on his first day back in office. 'Our southern border is overrun by cartels, criminal gangs, known terrorists, human traffickers, smugglers, unvetted military-age males from foreign adversaries, and illicit narcotics,' Trump announced on January 20, directing the military to 'assist the Department of Homeland Security in obtaining full operational control of the southern border.'
Despite the fact that Trump's fearmongering was his typical hyperbole, more than 10,000 troops are deploying or have deployed to the southern border, according to U.S. Northern Command, or NORTHCOM, which oversees U.S. military activity from Mexico's southern border up to the North Pole.
Under the direction of NORTHCOM, military personnel — including soldiers from the Fourth Infantry Division at Fort Carson in Colorado, one of the Army's most storied combat units — have deployed under the moniker Joint Task Force-Southern Border, or JTF-SB, since March, bolstering approximately 2,500 service members who were already supporting U.S. Customs and Border Protection's border security mission.
One-third of the U.S. border is now completely militarized due to the creation of four new national defense areas, or NDAs: sprawling extensions of U.S. military bases patrolled by troops who can detain immigrants until they can be handed over to Border Patrol agents.
The Air Force is responsible for the recently created South Texas NDA, which encompasses federal property along 250 miles of the Rio Grande River. The Navy controls the Yuma NDA, which extends along 140 miles of federal property on the U.S.–Mexico border near the Barry M. Goldwater Air Force Range in Arizona.
The New Mexico NDA, created in April, spans approximately 170 miles of noncontiguous land along that state's border, serving as an extension of the Army's Fort Huachuca. Another NDA was created in May in West Texas and covers approximately 63 miles of noncontiguous land between El Paso and Fort Hancock, serving as an extension of the Army's Fort Bliss.
Around 8,500 military personnel were assigned to JTF-SB to 'enhance US Customs and Border Patrol's capacity to identify, track and disrupt threats to border security,' chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said at the beginning of the month. JTF-SB says the current number of personnel deploys stands at 7,600, while NORTHCOM says the current number of federal troops providing border security is closer to 8,600.
No one actually knows how many troops have been involved in border operations this year. 'We do not maintain a running total of Service Members who have served with JTF-SB since its inception, so the total number since March is currently unavailable,' Kent Redmond, a spokesperson for JTF-Southern Border told The Intercept. NORTHCOM didn't have a number on hand either. But more than 10 Task Forces have assisted JTF-SB, including Task Force Mountain Warrior, consisting of soldiers from the 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team; Task Force Castle, made up of soldiers from the 41st Engineer Battalion; 500 Marines and Navy personnel from Task Force Sapper; and 500 Marines and sailors from Task Force Forge. The latter replaced the Task Force Sapper troops and are now conducting patrols in the Yuma NDA.
Since March alone, Parnell said, the JTF-SB has conducted more than 3,500 patrols, including more than 150 'trilateral' patrols with CBP and the Mexican military. There have, however, been only seven temporary detentions by troops within the National Defense Areas, according to Redmond. He said the seven persons were 'detained in place' by JTF-SB personnel for less than 10 minutes.
'The amount being spent to have the world's best fighting force walk around the border to pick up a handful of people is shocking.'
'Setting aside the threats to democracy and liberty, the sheer waste is staggering. The amount being spent to have the world's best fighting force walk around the border to pick up a handful of people is shocking,' said Goitein, who also noted that the detentions violated the Posse Comitatus Act.
'They may think if they detain people for only 10 minutes it's not a violation, but that's not how the law works,' Goitein explained. 'They may also say that the Posse Comitatus Act simply doesn't apply when the purpose is to protect a military base, but here it's clear that the primary purpose is enforcement of immigration law.'
The southern border increasingly resembles the site of one of America's post-9/11 foreign occupations, as military personnel employ weapons and gear originally intended for foreign battlefields. Troops have used Stryker armored vehicles (for the first time on the border since 2012), Black Hawk helicopters, Humvees, hulking up-armored MRAPs, long range advanced scout surveillance systems (which the Army uses for 'line of sight target acquisition'), Black Hornet microdrones, tethered aerostats (surveillance balloons with high-powered cameras), command launch units (which provide thermal imaging), AN/TPQ-53 Quick Reaction Capability Radar (used in the event of attack by rockets and mortars), AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel radar systems (used to counter low-flying aircraft and drones), while conducting, ground patrols, mounted patrols in armored vehicles, helicopter aerial 'deterrence' patrols, and even 'air assaults.'
The military has even dispatched Navy warships offshore to secure the border. After battling Yemen's Houthi rebels in the Gulf of Aden earlier this year, for example, the USS Stockdale — a guided-missile destroyer — was deployed to support NORTHCOM's southern border operations alongside the Coast Guard on the U.S.–Mexico maritime border. That ship took over for the USS Spruance, another guided-missile destroyer drafted into anti-immigrant operations.
'We are dead serious about 100% OPERATIONAL CONTROL of the southern border,' Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a post on X in March.
Since then, the Department of Homeland Security has repeatedly announced historically low apprehensions along the southern border. 'The numbers don't lie — under President Trump's leadership, DHS and CBP have shattered records and delivered the most secure border in American history,' said DHS Secretary Kristi Noem earlier this month. And as early as April, DHS announced, 'Customs and Border Protection now has total control of the border.'
Despite all of this, as well as the huge influx of troops and weapons of war deployed at the border, when The Intercept inquired whether full operational control of the border had been achieved and 'if not, why not?' DHS demurred. A senior DHS official, who offered comments on the condition of anonymity for no discernible reason, provided rote talking points and praise of Trump and Noem. The official added that the department was 'grateful' for JTF-SB's 'support.'
More than 5,000 troops have also been deployed to Los Angeles since early June.
The National Guard soldiers and Marines operating in Southern California — under the command of the Army's Task Force 51 — were sent to 'protect the safety and security of federal functions, personnel, and property.' In practice, this has mostly meant guarding federal buildings across LA from protests against the ongoing ICE raids sweeping the city.
Since Trump called up the troops on June 7, they have carried out exactly one temporary detainment, a Task Force 51 spokesperson told The Intercept.
Parnell, the Pentagon spokesperson, described this deployment as Task Force 51 supporting 'more than 170 missions in over 130 separate locations from nine federal agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Agency, the U.S. Marshal Service, ICE and the Department of Homeland Security' in a briefing in early July. Task Force 51 failed to provide any other metrics regarding troops' involvement in raids, arrests, or street patrols in response to questions by The Intercept.
Troops were sent to LA over the objections of local officials and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
In addition to guarding federal buildings, troops have also recently participated in raids alongside camouflage-clad ICE agents. An assault on MacArthur Park, a recreational hub in one of LA's most immigrant-heavy neighborhoods on July 7, for example, included 90 armed U.S. troops and 17 military Humvees. Its main accomplishment was rousting a summer day camp for children. No arrests were made.
California National Guard soldiers also backed ICE raids on state-licensed marijuana nurseries this month. The troops took part in the military-style assaults on two locations, one in the Santa Barbara County town of Carpinteria, about 90 miles northwest of LA and one in the Ventura County community of Camarillo, about 50 miles from LA. ICE detained more than 200 people, including U.S. citizens, during the joint operations. One man, Jaime Alanís Garcia, died while trying to flee from the raid in Camarillo.
On July 1, Task Force 51 announced that it would release approximately 150 members of the California National Guard from their LA duty. That same day, NORTHCOM said that the Marines from the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment were leaving Los Angeles but would be replaced by the 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment.
Last Tuesday, Trump administration officials announced that about 2,000 more National Guard members deployed to LA would be released from service. On Monday, the Trump administration announced it was withdrawing the 700 active-duty Marines from Los Angeles. The withdrawals followed repeated reporting by The Intercept highlighting the failure of the troops to do much of substance.
All told, since the deployments began, around 5,500 troops have been sent to southern California, according to Becky Farmer, a NORTHCOM spokesperson.
On the other side of the country, Marines are being hustled to Florida to aid the administration's anti-immigrant agenda. Responding to a DHS request, Hegseth approved a mobilization of up to 700 active, National Guard, and Reserve forces.
The first contingent — approximately 200 Marines from Marine Wing Support Squadron 272, Marine Corps Air Station New River, North Carolina — have been mobilized to support ICE's 'interior immigration enforcement mission' in Florida, NORTHCOM announced earlier this month. The command noted that they were only the 'first wave' of ICE assistance. NORTHCOM says additional forces will be deployed to Louisiana and Texas. Hundreds more Guardsmen are expected to be sent to assist in more than a half dozen other states, including Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Nebraska, South Carolina, Utah and Virginia.
Some of these same states are also using their own National Guard members in their own anti-immigrant operations. More than 4,200 Texas National Guard soldiers and airmen on state duty are engaged in Operation Lone Star, a border security initiative launched by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in March 2021. Texas's forces were bolstered, until April, by members of the Indiana National Guard.
Nearly 70 Florida National Guard members are also on state duty, conducting base camp security at the remote migrant detention center in the state's Everglades known as 'Alligator Alcatraz.' While Trump insisted that the swamp gulag was reserved for 'deranged psychopaths' and 'some of the most vicious people on the planet,' it was revealed that hundreds of detainees had committed no offense other than civil immigration violations.
'Governors should be doing everything in their power to avoid their state's national guard troops being pulled into this lawless, authoritarian power grab, not spending precious resources to help it along,' Sara Haghdoosti, the executive director of Win Without War, told The Intercept.
The Trump administration's use of military forces in its anti-immigrant crusade has been criticized as a publicity stunt and an authoritarian power play.
The directive signed by Trump calling up the California National Guard, for example, cited '10 U.S.C. 12406,' a provision within Title 10 of the U.S. Code on Armed Services that allows the federal deployment of National Guard forces if 'there is a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States.'
There was, however, no rebellion. Vice President JD Vance even recently vacationed at Disneyland in Anaheim, about 25 miles from LA.
Still, experts say that the stunt deployments represent a clear danger to American democracy by violating the Posse Comitatus Act; normalizing the use of the military in civilian law enforcement activities; and further transforming the armed forces into a tool of domestic oppression by aiding ICE, which increasingly operates as a masked, secret police force.
'ICE is running a nationwide campaign of violent, racist kidnappings, and Hegseth's Pentagon is bending over backward to make the military into ICE's chief sidekicks,' said Haghdoosti. 'Troops abetting violence against their own neighbors isn't tenable for our communities, our democracy, or the troops themselves.'