U.S. Soldiers assigned to Joint Task Force–Southern Border move to a patrol base near Tucson, Arizona, on May 11, 2025. Under the direction of U.S. Northern Command, the task force aligns efforts to seal the southern border and repel illegal activity. STAFF SGT. REMOI BROWN/U.S. ARMY
More than 1,100 troops have been approved to deploy to the Mexico-U.S. border, U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) announced May 22. Among other duties, the service members with Joint Task Force-Southern Border will coordinate logistics, provide food, water and medical care to troops in the field, and build mobility routes and force protection infrastructure, USNORTHCOM said in a statement.
There are now more than 10,000 troops — including active duty Soldiers and Marines and National Guard forces — positioned at the border to help Border Patrol officers. National Guard forces have operated at the border since 2018.
After his inauguration on January 20, 2025, Trump declared a national emergency at the border and authorized sizable troop deployments. Under Trump’s orders, the Pentagon has surged thousands of active-duty troops to the border region and declared swaths of New Mexico and Texas bordering Mexico as military installations to establish troops’ authorities to arrest and charge people caught crossing the border illegally.
The personnel announced May 22 include:
- About 65 service members from the Air Force, Army, Marine Corps and Navy to augment staffing at Joint Task Force-Southern Border headquarters.
- About 250 Soldiers from an Expeditionary Sustainment Command will coordinate logistics and manage sustainment requirements.
- About 140 Soldiers from a Quartermaster Field Feeding Company will support the feeding of deployed personnel.
- About 125 Soldiers from an Engineer Brigade Headquarters and about 145 Soldiers from an Engineer Battalion will coordinate and implement construction projects.
- About 310 Soldiers from two Engineer Construction Companies will build mobility routes, protective infrastructure and mission-critical facilities.
- About 75 Soldiers from a Medical Area Support Company will provide health care and resources.
- Five Airmen from an Air Force Logistics Support Element from Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida, will coordinate rapid logistics and sustainment planning.
The Pentagon said March 1 that it also had deployed 20-ton armored Stryker combat vehicles and a helicopter battalion with “UH-60 Black Hawks for command and medical evacuation, and CH-47 Chinooks for heavy lift.” Strykers are lightly armored, eight-wheeled attack vehicles that can carry up to 11 Soldiers and typically are outfitted with a machine gun or grenade launcher.
In addition to boots on the ground, the DOD has deployed U.S. Navy ships to the region to support the border operations. The littoral combat ship USS Charleston left its home port of Naval Base San Diego on May 20, replacing the San Diego-based guided-missile destroyer USS Stockdale, which was dispatched to the region in April.
The Stockdale replaced the San Diego-based guided-missile destroyer USS Spruance, which helped with the mission for several weeks starting in mid-March. The guided-missile destroyer USS Gravely, based in Norfolk, Virginia, deployed around the same time to support the mission.