The U.S. military is beefing up its presence at the southwest border as part of President Donald Trump's crackdown on unauthorized immigration.
The Defense Department announced Wednesday it is assigning 1,500 active duty troops to the border with Mexico. It is the first wave of military deployments to come, Defense Department officials have said, as they carry out Trump's executive orders aimed at stopping illegal immigration.
"As commander in chief, I have no higher responsibility than to defend our country from threats and invasions, and that is exactly what I am going to do," Trump said during his inaugural speech.
The troops will serve in a variety of support roles including by helping build more physical barriers and carrying out deportation flights for more than 5,000 undocumented immigrants.
Sending the military to the border in limited support roles isn't new. There were already 2,500 troops at the border when Trump took office, according to Defense Department officials.
Presidents George W, Bush, Barack Obama and Joe Biden all called up troops to assist immigration authorities.
Governors have also sent state national guard members.
RELATED STORY | Trump signs order that would send about 1,500 troops to US-Mexico border
But Trump's executive orders have made clear he is considering using the military to enforce immigration laws, which would go further than the military's previous support missions at the border.
One executive order gives U.S. Northern Command, which assigns military missions in the U.S., 10 days to draw up a "campaign" to seal the border and stop unlawful mass migration.
"It would be an attempt to transform immigration enforcement into a military operation," said Elizabeth Goitein, senior director of the Brennan Center's Liberty and National Security Program. "Something like this I think would generate tremendous opposition and resistance."
The Posse Comitatus Act, passed in 1878, prohibits U.S. troops from engaging in civilian law enforcement. Trump is weighing whether to invoke the Insurrection Act at the border, a law that gives the commander in chief the power to use military forces on U.S. soil in extreme cases.
While Trump has declared a national emergency at the border, the number of unauthorized crossings from Mexico to the U.S. has plummeted in the past year to levels similar to when Trump left office at the end of his first term if office.
