In one year, U.S. military conduct tens of thousands of missions at southwest border

By Bethany Blankley
The Center Square

In one year, U.S. military conducted tens of thousands of detection, monitoring and security site missions at the southwest border.

More than 20,000 service members have served at the southwest border over the last year through Joint Task Force Southern Border (JTF-SB). The operation reached its one-year anniversary on March 14 and is ongoing.

“During this first year, Joint Task Force-Southern Border and partners have proven what a whole-of-government approach to our nation’s southern border can accomplish,” Army Maj. Gen. David Gardner, commanding general of the JTF-SB and 101st Airborne Division, said in a statement. “Our joint teammates and partners have strengthened border security through unity of effort, accelerated decision-making and enhanced detection capability. While the environment is complex, our mission is clear: to secure the homeland with precision, professionalism and respect for the rule of law.”

Soldiers assigned to the 10th Mountain Division in Fort Drum, New York, were deployed to Fort Huachuca, Arizona, to establish JTF-SB last March. Last October, the 101st Airborne Division from Fort Campbell, Kentucky, assumed control of the JTF-SB mission.

President Donald Trump established JTF-SB through several executive orders he issued on his first day and week in office. Trump was the first president to declare an invasion at the southwest border and directed the Department of Defense’s United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) to “seal the borders and maintain the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and security of the United States by repelling forms of invasion including unlawful mass migration, narcotics trafficking, human smuggling and trafficking, and other criminal activities.”

JTF-SB’s stated mission is to “safeguard U.S. territorial integrity and protect the American people.” It seeks to do this by increasing situational awareness across the 1,954-mile U.S.-Mexico border by “accelerating response capabilities and supporting federal law enforcement partners so they can focus on frontline duties.”

By last March, more than 10,000 U.S. troops were deployed to support southern border security efforts, The Center Square reported. That number has since doubled.

JTFSB service members began conducting enhanced detection and monitoring, including providing “mobile ground-based support to detect, track and monitor movements of suspected illegal activity using military tactical vehicles or foot patrols” in areas identified by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Border Patrol. So far, five National Defense Areas (NDA) have been established and expanded along the southwest border including in New Mexico and Texas, The Center Square reported.

Over the past year, troops conducted remote and mobile detections, synchronized planning, rapid mobility and persistent presence along the Rio Grance River, in the air and in high traffic urban-to-urban corridors.

This involved roughly 22,000 enhanced detection and monitoring missions, including nearly 3,000 joint patrols with Border Patrol agents. Aviation assets executed nearly 1,600 aerial observation flight missions and 220 unmanned aerial missions last year.

Troops conducted more than 800 mirrored patrols on both sides of the southwest border, working with Border Patrol agents and the Mexican Secretariat of National Defense, according to Department of War data.

They also conducted more than 84,000 security site missions last year, providing continuous detection and monitoring across the southwest border using sensor-borne technology, fixed and mobile ground sensors and long-range systems. They tested new equipment and technology to conduct the operations, including: “the TRV-150C tactical resupply vehicle; an infantry squad vehicle Marines trained on for the first time in an operational environment; an unmanned surface vessel and solar-powered maritime detection device; and various kinetic and nonkinetic counter-unmanned aerial systems.”

JTF-SB troops also installed nearly 6,000 signs and 2,000 marine buoys along 656 miles of the southwest border to demarcate five new NDAs.

They delivered more than 51,000 rolls of concertina wire and erected wire barriers in key locations in conjunction with Customs and Border Protection. New barrier reinforcement measures represent “the largest of its kind in U.S. history, adding a layer of deterrence in areas most needed to deter and deny illegal crossings,” the DOW said.

Entering its second year, JTF-SB troops remain dedicated to their mission, to strengthening integration, advancing data-driven operations and providing support to CBP and Border Patrol, Gardner said. He added that JTF-SB operations are helping expand detection and monitoring and improve data sharing to enable federal, state and local law enforcement apprehend illegal border crossers, target drug and human smugglers and locate criminal elements in the interior of the U.S.