This post has been updated to clarify comments from Gen. Gregory Guillot on threats to U.S. forces at the border from attack drones.
The expanded military presence along the U.S. southern border and at sea will probably continue for a couple of years, Northern Command’s senior officer told the House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday.
Air Force Gen. Gregory Guillot said to ensure the border is secure, “we need to make sure it is lasting.”
He put the number of active-duty forces on the border itself at about. 6,500 following President Trump’s executive order issued two months ago. When ships and aircraft are added, the number of active-duty forces climbs to 10,000.
The Navy has dispatched guided-missile destroyers USS Spruance (DDG-111), USS Gravely (DDG-107) and guided missile cruiser USS Normandy (CG-60) to the region for patrols, USNI News has reported.
The estimated cost to the Defense Department for the first two months of deployments has been $376 million, Rafael Leonardo, performing the duties of the assistant secretary of defense for homeland security, told the committee.
Leonardo, “there has been a 97 percent decrease in illegal crossings” since the first border executive order was issued.
CBS News reported 8,450 detentions for illegal border crossings for a month after the executive order was issued. Recently, detentions sometimes numbered 8,000 per day.
As a result of tighter security, Guillot said Mexican cartels “are trying to find new ways to get … people and drugs across the border.”
What is also happening as security is tightened is a violent struggle between cartels to regain their sources of income as both Mexico City and Washington crack down on the trafficking of humans and drugs, he said.
U.S. officials have said Border Patrol agents and military members are at risk from potential attack drones from cartels in Mexico, according to regional press reports.
Shooting down drones “is the only change I requested” in what active-duty forces would be allowed to do under existing law, said Guillot.
Guillot added that the active-duty forces are armed, “but are not doing any detention activity.” He stressed several times that detention is being carried out by the Border Patrol or other law enforcement agencies.
“I have no orders to detain illegal migrants. Title 10 forces [serving on active duty] are not allowed to transport illegal migrants or aliens.”
As to whether the border deployments have an impact on readiness, Guillot said the services could best answer the question.
About 90 percent of the time for active forces on the border is spent on detection and monitoring and turning that information over to civilian law enforcement. Guillot added that before being assigned to the border and again after arrival, these soldiers receive extensive training “in the use of force and posse comitatus,” the law that restricts the military from enforcing civil law.
Leonardo said the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security are continuing to assess the need to temporarily house illegal migrants at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He did not directly answer questions as to whether detained illegal migrants would be sent to active-duty military installations before deportations.
Trump, in a late January executive order, was looking at Guantanamo to potentially hold 30,000 migrants until they could be deported to their home countries.
Adm. Alvin Holsey, commander of Southern Command, and Guillot said the two commands have entered a new era of cooperation in securing the border and halting the flow of narcotics northward from South America.
Northern Command’s area of responsibility includes Mexico.
Looking at Southern Command situation now, Holsey said, “China has already established a presence …from ports to space” in the region, while Russia continues its strong visible support of Cuba and Venezuela.
Twenty-two of the 31 nations in the command participate in China’s Belt and Road initiative to build infrastructure from ports to airfields and bridges and highways. At the same time, Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei has expanded its offerings of 5G networks across the region.
Holsey pointed several times during the hearing to the importance of U.S. presence – from handshakes to the Export-Import Bank’s regional investments to military exercises and partnering in drug interdiction to humanitarian port calls by hospital ships USNS Comfort and USNS Mercy in the Caribbean and South America.
As for increased Russian, Chinese and even Iranian naval presence, he added, “we have to make sure we stay in their face.”
“Panama backed out” of the Belt and Road program, he told the committee. The Chinese-controlled ports under C.K. Hutchinson on both sides of the canal will be sold to the investment firm BlackRock, according to press reports.
Holsey stated in prepared testimony, “the threats and challenges within the Western Hemisphere have global implications. For instance, Chinese access, presence, and influence across the region and at strategic chokepoints such as the Panama Canal have the potential to threaten the United States’s ability to rapidly respond in the Indo-Pacific should a crisis unfold. The key to overcoming the challenges of our adversaries is partnership (underlined in the document).”
On drug interdictions, Holsey said, “we can engage 10 percent of what we see.” He added that 80 percent of the interdictions are made by partners very often based on information the U.S. provided.
To up the rate of interdiction, Holsey said the command would need more ships and aircraft and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets.
Complicating matters, however, is the more than 50 percent increase in coca production in Colombia that has also seen a drop in price, he added. Calling the Colombian military “one of our strongest partners, he added, “they are in a fight today” with the cocaine cartels.
