Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper learned of an idea under discussion in the spring of 2020 from the White House that would potentially send up to 250,000 U.S. troops — more than half the active U.S. Army, and a sixth of all American forces — to seal the southern border. According to The New York Times, Esper thought the idea was “outrageous.”
With the coronavirus pandemic raging, Stephen Miller, the architect of Mr. Trump’s immigration agenda, had urged the Homeland Security Department to develop a plan for the number of troops that would be needed to seal the entire 2,000-mile border with Mexico. It is not clear whether it was officials in homeland security or the Pentagon who concluded that a quarter of a million troops would be required.
According to the Times, officials at the Department of Homeland Security had bypassed the Defense Secretary’s office and gone directly to the Northern Command, which is responsible for military operations in the United States. Mr. Esper declined to comment on the report but the Times writes he “believed that deploying so many troops to the border would undermine American military readiness around the world, officials said.”
The Times also reports that around the same time discussions were underway to possibly send U.S. forces into Mexico to hunt members of drug cartels.
“…[T]he ideas under discussion that spring underscore the Trump administration’s view of the armed forces as a tool of the presidency that could be wielded on behalf of Mr. Trump’s domestic political agenda in an election year. And it further reveals the breach between Mr. Trump and his top military officials, who worked behind the scenes to prevent what they viewed as the president’s dangerous instincts.”
