The Trump administration’s deployment of active duty troops to the southern US border to assist the Department of Homeland Security adhered to federal laws and Defense Department policies, according to a new report from the Pentagon’s Inspector General.
Referring to “Title 10 personnel,” or active duty troops, the report said that “the use of DoD Title 10 personnel to support DHS southern border security operations was authorized by Federal laws and was consistent with DoD policies.” The IG report, published Tuesday, added that the activities that military personnel were tasked to perform did not violate the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits active duty troops from performing law enforcement tasks.
President Donald Trump’s decision to deploy thousands of active duty forces to the border, as opposed to the more traditional National Guard units, drew criticism from some lawmakers, some of whom requested that the Defense Department Inspector General review the legality of the deployments.
’183 encounters’
“We evaluated the nine (Requests for Assistance) that included direct or indirect civilian law enforcement because Congress asked the DoD OIG to review DoD Title 10 personnel performing law enforcement assistance while supporting DHS southern border security operations and identify any potential violations of the Posse Comitatus Act,” the report said.
It added that the requested support did not include “direct civilian law enforcement assistance that DoD Title 10 personnel were not authorized to perform, such as interviews and interrogations, evidence collection, pursuit of individuals, and forensic investigations,” activities that would have constituted a potential violation of the law.
“In all nine DHS Requests for Assistance that contained a request for DoD Title 10 personnel, the Secretary of Defense-approved activities that were authorized by Federal laws and DoD policies, including show of force, crowd control, temporary detention, conducting cursory searches, and detection and monitoring,” the report said.
The Inspector General said it “determined that DoD Title 10 personnel reported 183 encounters with civilians or migrants along the US southern border during” the reporting period and that none of those encounters involved US troops performing prohibited law enforcement functions, such as search and seizure.
“When migrants approached DoD Title 10 personnel providing support to DHS southern border security operations, DoD Title 10 personnel generally asked the migrants to stop and wait for” US Border Patrol, the report said, adding that “during our review of the reported 183 encounters, we identified three instances when DoD Title 10 personnel provided lifesaving support.”
US Border Patrol agents told the Pentagon’s Inspector General that active duty military personnel “supporting DHS southern border security operations reported the presence of civilians or migrants near the border that resulted in the USBP apprehending 1,805 individuals.”
Trump first ordered the deployment of some 5,000 active duty troops to the border in 2018 in response to the anticipated arrival of a migrant caravan from Central America. He had previously deployed 2,100 National Guard troops to the border in April of that year.
As of May, there were about 5,000 military personnel, a mix of active duty and National Guard troops, assigned to the southwest border mission to support Customs and Border Protection in a number of roles including placing concertina wire, transporting CBP personnel and conducting surveillance.
Defense officials told CNN that there were concerns within the Pentagon that the increase in military support could constitute law enforcement activities, leading then-Defense Secretary James Mattis to obtain written clarification from the White House about the nature of the military’s support.
The Pentagon also recently opted to adjust the deployment of troops on the border, replacing the majority of the active duty troops there with National Guard personnel, bringing the deployment into line with previous military operations on the US-Mexico border under the administrations of former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
