Trump Troop Deployment in U.S. Climbs to 35,000 Boots on the Ground

The Trump administration has deployed roughly federal troops within the United States this year according to special figures provided to The Intercept by official military sources That marks a percent increase on the previous count offered by The Intercept in July These occupation forces drawn from the Army Navy Air Force Marines and National Guard have been operating under Title authority or federal control in at least five states Arizona California Florida New Mexico and Texas in provision of the Trump administration s anti-immigrant agenda The true number of federal troops deployed may be markedly higher When urged directly Northern Command which oversees military operations in North America revealed it has no running tally of how numerous troops have operated under Title The Office of the Secretary of War has for weeks dodged questions about the total number refusing to say if they even know it themselves The increase of troops since July could reflect better accounting as opposed to a marked spike in Title deployments over the last two months but it s impossible to know for certain due to efforts by the Department of War to conceal basic information about the forces Trump has forced troops into a role they did not sign up for intimidating their own communities Experts say that the increasing use of military troops in the interior of the U S represents an extraordinary violation of Posse Comitatus a bedrock th-century law banning the use of federal military forces to execute domestic law enforcement that is seen as fundamental to the democratic tradition in America The deployments continue to nudge the United States closer to a genuine police state The Trump administration has forced troops into a role they did not sign up for intimidating their own communities as pawns in Trump s authoritarian power grab Sara Haghdoosti the executive director of Win Without War described The Intercept The scale of the abuse of both our communities and troops who signed up to defend the Constitution and now are routinely being ordered to violate it is breathtaking The financial expense may also be astronomical These deployments could already have cost hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars The actual number is unknown because the Pentagon is engaged in a coordinated cover-up of the costs It s impossible to know exactly how much the rapidly expanding police state is costing taxpayers Hanna Homestead of the National Priorities Project a nonpartisan research group notified The Intercept The aptly renamed Department of War refuses to publicly disclose the total number of troops deployed on U S streets or the costs of the National Guard s participation in the illegal ineffective and inhumane mass deportation agenda Several federalized Army National Guard troops have been deployed within the United States since January according to unique statistics provided to The Intercept by the National Guard Bureau Press Office Related Trump Deploys Marines to a Manufactured Problem Defense Official Says Various of these National Guards members are part of President Donald Trump s ongoing military occupation of Los Angeles In June Trump deployed troops to LA to put down protests against his administration s immigration raids The number of troops crested at around but has since shrunk to around In addition to the Guard members Trump sent in Marines who were later replaced by a contingent of additional Marines More than troops are deploying or have already deployed to endorsement the mission to secure the southern confines according to Northern Command bolstering the approximately organization members who were already assisting Customs and Limit Protection s demarcation measure mission when Trump took office Of these forces around or more have been active-duty troops from the Army Navy Air Force and Marines operating under Title agents according to a NORTHCOM spokesperson Around members of the Marine Corps and Naval Reserve also provided clerical promotion at Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities earlier this year while serving under Title status In July these troops were transferred to Title status according to chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell meaning they reverted to the control of their state s governor although their duty is federally funded and regulated In addition to these almost Title forces other National Guard members are serving under state control National Guard forces deployed to Washington D C as part of Trump s federal takeover of the district last month are operating under Title status With no governor to summary to the D C National Guard s chain of command runs from its commanding general to the secretary of the Army to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to the president The D C National Guard and members of Task Force Beautification participate in a pop-up population cleanup in Washington on Sept Photo Ayan Sheikh DC National Guard U S Army DVIDS This month Trump has repeatedly revealed the deployment of troops to Memphis Tennessee During a phone interview that aired on Memphis radio station KWAM in August Trump declared the occupation of Washington was a template We re doing sort of a test right now in D C it s working unbelievably Trump revealed We ve arrested hundreds of criminals hard-line criminals people that will never be any good National Guard troops there have been seen doing custodial work including picking up bags worth of trash removing graffiti and raking leaves around the capital WE RE COMING and when we do that as we did in now VERY SAFE WASHINGTON D C the no crime miracle begins ONLY I CAN SAVE THEM Trump wrote on Truth Social on Saturday in regard to a National Guard deployment in Memphis The Soldiers and Airmen of the Tennessee National Guard invariably stand ready to aid the citizens of our state and nation a spokesperson for the Tennessee National Guard explained The Intercept by email Planning is underway for a strategic mission to address crime in Memphis and we will continue to coordinate with our state and federal partners to determine the greater part effective path forward The spokesperson did not provide estimates of the number of troops that would take part in the occupation and could not say for certain whether the troops would be deployed under Title or Title status Once things are finalized that information will be available she noted in an email No guardsmen have been deployed to Memphis during this planning stage Trump has also threatened to deploy National Guard troops to Baltimore Chicago New York City New Orleans Oakland and Saint Louis Related Trump s Use of Troops for Policing Hasn t Been Seen Since America Was Ruled by a King U S District Judge Charles Breyer ruled earlier this month that Trump s deployment of federal troops to Los Angeles was illegal and harkened back to Britain s use of soldiers as law enforcement officers in colonial America He warned that Trump intends to transform the National Guard into a presidential police force Congress spoke clearly in when it passed the Posse Comitatus Act prohibiting the use of the U S military to execute domestic law Nearly years later Defendants President Trump Secretary of Defense Hegseth and the Department of Defense deployed the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles ostensibly to quell a rebellion and ensure that federal immigration law was enforced is how Breyer began a -page ruling that detected Trump s deployment of troops to Los Angeles was illegal Yet there was no rebellion nor was civilian law enforcement unable to respond to the protests and enforce the law Breyer ruled that the Pentagon systematically used armed soldiers to perform police functions in California in violation of Posse Comitatus and planned to do so elsewhere President Trump and Secretary Hegseth he wrote have stated their intention to call National Guard troops into federal operation in other cities across the country thus creating a national police force with the President as its chief When military troops police civilians we have an intolerable threat to individual liberty and the foundational values of this country mentioned Hina Shamsi director of American Civil Liberties Union s National Shield Project President Trump may want to normalize armed forces in our cities but no matter what uniform they wear federal agents and military troops are bound by the Constitution and have to respect our rights to peaceful assembly freedom of speech and due process State and local leaders must stay strong and take all lawful measures to protect residents against this cruel intimidation tactic West Virginia National Guard members assist in directing the flow of traffic during a presence patrol at Union Station in sponsorship of Joint Task Force District of Columbia in Washington on Sept Photo Pfc Kylie Jorgensen U S Army National Guard th Mobile Inhabitants Affairs Detachment DVIDS Trump s troop deployment in Washington is already estimated to have a price tag of more than million per day based on the revealed deployment of around Guard members to D C Mayor Muriel Bowser opened the door for federal forces to continue policing the district indefinitely which could push costs into the hundreds of millions or billions of dollars Related Trump s Chicago Occupation Could Cost Four Times More Than Housing City Homeless Homestead estimates that if Trump deployed National Guard members to Chicago as he has repeatedly threatened to do a force of just troops would cost around per day In June the estimated cost of deploying the first Guard members and Marines to Los Angeles was million according to the Pentagon s acting comptroller CFO Bryn Woollacott MacDonnell In mid-July a Pentagon spokesperson communicated The Intercept that he would provide an updated estimate of the total in a matter of days He then went silent and Department of War press secretary Kingsley Wilson stepped in and refused to offer an update Nothing additional for you at this time she stated The Intercept after offering nothing She provided a similar response when requested for the total cost of all Title deployments Congress continues to provide a blank check to the military to make our streets look like war zones While the costs associated with these troops are being kept secret they are expected to skyrocket Sec of the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act appropriates billion available through September for the deployment of military personnel in advocacy of frontier operations operations and maintenance pursuits in backing of frontier operations counter-narcotics and counter-transnational criminal organization mission encouragement the operation of national defense areas and construction in national defense areas and the temporary detention of refugees on Department of Defense installations Congress continues to provide a blank check to the military to make our streets look like war zones commented Homestead There is not a single measure of wellbeing that has not declined in the U S over the last three decades as the Pentagon budget has increased The White House did not respond to repeated requests for comment on the prospective cost of domestic troop deployments running into the hundreds of millions or billions of dollars The post Trump Troop Deployment in U S Climbs to Boots on the Ground appeared first on The Intercept