Soldiers in the Army’s 101st Airborne Division will head to the U.S.-Mexico border this fall as part of the latest deployments to the region in support of federal government efforts to stop illegal immigration, the Army has announced.
Currently, about 7,600 are deployed to the region in support of Joint Task Force–Southern Border, according to U.S. Northern Command, or NORTHCOM. Troop levels will remain roughly the same when the new soldiers deploy in the fall, Army officials said.
The latest deployments involve the following units:
- The 101st Airborne Division Headquarters will replace the 10th Mountain Division Headquarters.
- The 101st Airborne Division Artillery will replace the 89th Military Police Brigade.
- The 10th Combat Aviation Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, will replace the 1st Infantry Division Combat Aviation Brigade.
- The 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, will replace the 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division.
- The 11th Corps Signal Brigade, III Armored Corps, will replace the 35th Corps Signal Brigade, 18th Airborne Corps.
- The North Carolina Army National Guard’s 130th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade will replace the Army Reserve’s 90th Sustainment Brigade.
The total number of soldiers deploying to the U.S.-Mexico border in the fall was not included in the Army’s news release.
U.S. military planners are still determining what type of combat vehicles and other equipment soldiers deploying to the southern border this fall will have, a defense official said.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 20 declaring a national emergency on the southern border, and he directed the Defense Department to assist the Department of Homeland Security with border security.
In addition to sending troops to the southern border, the Defense Department has also established four “national defense areas” in the region, in which U.S. troops can temporarily detain trespassers until they can be handed off to federal law enforcement officers.
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Last month, the Pentagon announced that troops that have deployed to the southern border since Jan. 20 to help agents with U.S. Border and Customs Protection, or CBP, will be eligible for the Mexican Border Defense Medal. The award has the same design as the Mexican Border Service Medal, which Congress established in 1918.
The Pentagon has also shifted $200 million from Army, Navy, Air Force and Defense Department programs, such as barracks where enlisted personnel live, to replace a 12-foot-tall mesh barrier with a 30-foot-tall permanent protective barrier at the Barry M. Goldwater Range in Arizona.
As Task & Purpose previously reported, the border mission has quietly been used as a military test-bed, with the fielding of the Integrated Visual Augmentation System, or IVAS; the deployment of a platoon of 10th Mountain Division soldiers who worked on a counter-drone mission on the U.S.-Mexico border; and a vehicle equipped with a BlueHalo LOCUST Laser Weapon System.
The current border mission is in addition to Operation Lone Star, a Texas mission that is separate from federal efforts.
