Gen. Dan Caine, the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made an unannounced visit to the southwestern border over the weekend for a firsthand look at the military’s growing role in helping to stem migrant crossings, a top priority for President Trump.
That General Caine made his first official trip to the border as chairman underscores the importance of the mission to the White House, and the Pentagon, even as crossings have dropped precipitously during the Trump administration.
General Caine, a former Air Force F-16 fighter pilot, visited the military headquarters for the operation at Fort Huachuca, Ariz., on Saturday. He then took a 30-minute Blackhawk helicopter ride to a Border Patrol station at Douglas, Ariz., where he received briefings, said two military officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters.
The Pentagon has dispatched nearly 7,000 active-duty troops along the border from California to Texas, including armed infantry and support troops from the 4th Infantry Division at Fort Carson in Colorado. The military is also flying surveillance drones and other reconnaissance aircraft and has ordered two Navy ships to conduct patrols along the Pacific and Gulf coasts.
General Caine’s visit came after Mr. Trump this month announced a plan to turn a narrow strip along the Mexican border in California, Arizona and New Mexico into a military installation as part of his effort to curtail illegal crossings.
The plan, set out in a White House memo, calls for transferring authority over the 60-foot-wide strip of federal land, known as the Roosevelt Reservation, to the Defense Department from other cabinet agencies.
Military forces patrolling that area could then temporarily detain migrants passing through for trespassing on a military reservation, the Pentagon’s Northern Command said in a statement on Monday.
Dispatching large numbers of frontline combat forces underscores how Mr. Trump is breaking with past presidents’ recent practice of mostly limiting deployments along the U.S.-Mexico border to small numbers of active-duty soldiers and reservists.
So far, the active-duty troops have been helping to build barriers and support law-enforcement agencies, as have active-duty and reservist forces sent to the border in past years, including during Mr. Trump’s first term.
But Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on his first full official day on the job in January that “whatever is needed at the border will be provided.” He did not rule out Mr. Trump’s invoking the Insurrection Act, a more than 200-year-old law, to allow the use of armed forces for law enforcement duty.
Taking such an action would plunge the military into politically charged territory that has deeply concerned congressional Democrats.
The Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security are expected to forward recommendations to the White House in the next few days on whether Mr. Trump should invoke the Insurrection Act.
