US to send 1,500 troops to border with Mexico ahead of 'migrant surge'

The Biden administration will send 1,500 active-duty troops to the US-Mexico border starting next week, ahead of an expected migrant surge following the end of coronavirus pandemic-era restrictions.

Military personnel will do data entry, warehouse support and other administrative tasks so that US Customs and Border Protection can focus on fieldwork, White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said on Tuesday.

The troops "will not be performing law enforcement functions or interacting with immigrants, or migrants," Jean-Pierre said. "This will free up Border Patrol agents to perform their critical law enforcement duties."

They will be deployed for 90 days, and will be pulled from the Army and Marine Corps, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will look to backfill with National Guard or Reserve troops during that period, Pentagon spokesman Air Force Brigadier General Pat Ryder said.

The Covid-19 restrictions have allowed US officials to turn away tens of thousands of migrants crossing the southern border, but those restrictions will lift on May 11, and border officials are bracing for a surge.

Even amid the restrictions, the administration has seen record numbers of people crossing the border, and President Joe Biden has responded by cracking down on those who cross illegally and by creating new pathways meant to offer alternatives to a dangerous and often deadly journey.

For Biden, who announced his Democratic reelection campaign a week ago, the decision signals his administration is taking seriously an effort to tamp down the number of illegal crossings, a potent source of Republican attacks, and sends a message to potential border crossers not to attempt the journey.

The Covid-19 measures, named Title 42 programme, were introduced under ex-president Donald Trump and were used to expel people crossing without migration documents.

Unacceptable 'militarisation of border'

Some in Biden's own party have objected to the decision.

"The Biden administration's militarisation of the border is unacceptable," said Senate Committee on Foreign Relations chair Bob Menendez, D-NJ.

"There is already a humanitarian crisis in the Western Hemisphere, and deploying military personnel only signals that migrants are a threat that require our nation’s troops to contain. Nothing could be further from the truth."

Last week, administration officials announced they would work to swiftly screen migrants seeking asylum at the border, quickly deport those deemed as not being qualified, and penalise people who cross illegally into the US or illegally through another country on their way to the US border.

They will also open centres outside the United States for people fleeing violence and poverty to apply to fly in legally and settle in the United States, Spain or Canada. The first processing centres will open in Guatemala and Colombia, with others expected to follow.

The Pentagon on Tuesday approved the request for troops by Homeland Security, which manages the border.

The deployments have a catch: As a condition for Austin’s previous approval of National Guard troops to the border through October 1, Homeland Security had to agree to work with the White House and Congress to develop a plan for longer-term staffing solutions and funding shortfalls, "to maintain border security and the safe, orderly, and humane processing of migrants that do not involve the continued use of DOD personnel and resources," said Pentagon spokesperson Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Devin Robinson.

As part of the agreement, the Pentagon has requested quarterly updates from Homeland Security on how it would staff its border mission without servicemembers. It was not immediately clear if those updates have happened or if border officials will be able to meet their terms of the agreement — particularly under the strain of another expected migrant surge.