The newly installed administration of President Donald Trump is deploying military assets to support a promised crackdown against undocumented immigration and address concerns about border security.
Acting secretary of defense Robert Salesses on 22 January said the Pentagon, acting under presidential order, will send 1,500 personnel to USA’s southern border, including an unspecified number of rotary-wing assets and crews.
Fixed-wing transport aircraft are also being assigned to help deport some 5,000 undocumented migrants currently detained by US customs officers in San Diego, California and El Paso, Texas.
“President Trump directed action from the Department of Defense on securing our nation’s borders and made clear he expects immediate results,” Salesses says. “That is exactly what our military is doing under his leadership.”
Salesses was installed as temporary Pentagon chief on 20 January, the same day Trump was sworn in as president. The long-time defence official will fill the role of secretary while Trump’s permanent choice, television presenter Pete Hegseth, undergoes confirmation consideration by the US Senate.
A senior military official confirmed to reporters on 22 January that the US Air Force will be lending Boeing C-17s and Lockheed Martin C-130s to the deportation effort, which will be managed by officers with the Department of Homeland Security.
There are already some 2,500 active-duty military personnel supporting policing along the US-Mexico frontier, providing logistical support, construction assets and extra manpower to the US Border Patrol and other law enforcement agencies.
The Pentagon notes the additional 1,500 troops mark a 60% increase in military forces assigned to mission, not counting transport crews supporting deportation flights.
Although specific details are not immediately available on the number and type of rotary-wing assets to be deployed, Airbus UH-72A Lakota and Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk utility helicopters from the National Guard have been operating along the border for years.
Other military aviation assets have participated in the effort over the past 20 years, including Bell-Boeing MV-22 Osprey tiltrotors from the US Marine Corps and the US Army’s now-defunct Bell OH-58 Kiowa scout helicopter.
