The Biden administration is making plans to send an additional 1,500 active-duty troops to the US-Mexico border in anticipation of an influx of migrants when the Title 42 public health authority expires next week, sources familiar with the planning told CNN.
The US military has long provided support to the Department of Homeland Security on the border and a surge of personnel to the area is not unprecedented. Currently there are approximately 2,500 National Guard troops on the border.
As they’ve done before, the troops would serve in administrative roles and not perform any law enforcement function, the sources said. Their assistance is intended to free up resources at the Department of Homeland Security so that US Customs and Border Protection can operate more freely in the field, the sources added.
“At the request of DHS, DOD will provide a temporary increase of an additional 1,500 military personnel, for 90 days, to supplement CBP efforts at the border. These 1,500 military personnel will fill critical capability gaps, such as ground-based detection and monitoring, data entry, and warehouse support, until CBP can address these needs through contracted support. They will not be doing any law enforcement work,” a US official said in a statement.
Officials have seen an uptick in migrants crossing the US-Mexico border in anticipation of the expiration of Title 42, which was invoked at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic and has allowed border authorities to quickly expel certain migrants. The authority is set to expire on May 11. There have been around 7,000 daily encounters on the US southern border in recent days, a number expected to rise in the coming weeks.
Last July, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas asked Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin for troops to help CBP starting October 1, 2022 through September 2023. Austin approved a deployment of…
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