The Donald Trump administration is considering a plan to establish a buffer rent(expense) at the border and deploy military personnel to prevent illegal immigrants, according to a report by The Washington Post citing five sources on the 19th (local time).
The plan is under review by the Ministry of National Defense and has been discussed for several weeks. The key is to allocate the defense budget to the border area. However, deploying military personnel to the southern border buffer rent(expense) may violate federal law, which prohibits the use of active military personnel for most law enforcement duties. So far, the Trump administration has avoided violations of federal law by allowing the Customs and Border Protection Agency and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency to detain and transport illegal immigrants.
To that end, senior officials at the Ministry of National Defense have reportedly requested a review of whether it could be legally problematic for U.S. forces to temporarily detain those illegally crossing the border if agents from the Customs and Border Protection Agency are unable to apprehend illegal immigrants immediately. The Trump administration's plan aims to create a buffer rent(expense) near the border, making it so that all immigrants apprehended by soldiers are treated similarly to those captured for illegally entering a military base.
As of the 19th, more than 10,000 U.S. troops have been deployed for border security-related missions. Recently, the Ministry of National Defense has assigned the 10th Mountain Division based at Fort Drum in New York to southern border duties. Additionally, about 2,400 soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division and the 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team based at Fort Carson in Colorado have been deployed to Army installations Fort Huachuca and Fort Bliss near the Mexican border in El Paso.
It is still unclear whether Trump will approve this plan, but administration officials believe it makes sense to strengthen penalties against immigrants crossing the border illegally and to establish a national defense zone at the border.
Earlier, Minister Pete Hegseth expressed support for deploying troops to the southern border. Hegseth views securing the border as essential to U.S. national security. During his visit to the border in February, when he became the first defense minister to do so, he said, “We have defended other places and other spaces. Now we will defend this place.”