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Pentagon orders up to 3,000 troops and Stryker combat vehicles to border
The Washington Post ^ | March 1, 2025 11:22 AM EST | Dan Lamothe

Posted on 03/01/2025 11:09:36 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered an additional 2,500 to 3,000 active-duty troops to the southern U.S. border, including soldiers from a motorized brigade equipped with 20-ton armored Stryker combat vehicles, two defense officials familiar with the effort said.

The defense secretary approved the orders Friday, the officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal Defense Department planning. The soldiers are primarily from the 4th Infantry Division’s 2nd Stryker Brigade at Fort Carson, Colorado, and will be joined by soldiers specializing in engineering, intelligence and public affairs, the officials said.

Officials with U.S. Northern Command, which oversees military operations in the United States, and Pentagon spokesmen John Ullyot and Sean Parnell did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The deployment had been in planning since January and comes despite a sharp drop in border crossings since the Trump administration took office. Hegseth said during a trip to the border in February that all options are on the table to support President Donald Trump’s efforts to stop illegal migration.

The orders are part of a broader, politically fraught military mission that the Trump administration initiated to bolster efforts by the Department of Homeland Security to stop undocumented migrants and drug smugglers from crossing into the United States. Several thousand U.S. troops are already involved, primarily assisting U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in the detection and apprehension of migrants seeking to enter the United States illegally.

Stryker vehicles — a lightly armored attack vehicle carrying up to 11 soldiers and typically equipped with a machine gun or grenade launcher — have been used in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. More recently, the Biden administration provided some Stryker vehicles to Ukrainian forces, who used them during a cross-border incursion into...

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Government; Military/Veterans
KEYWORDS: beautifulwall; border; illegals; invasion; landmines; largewall; machinegunnests
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To: sten
3000 troops isn’t gonna get it done

If that is so, then Trump will send in more. It's not rocket surgery.

21 posted on 03/01/2025 11:44:33 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (The worst thing about censorship is █████ ██ ████ ████ ████ █ ███████ ████. FJB.)
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To: sten
If the cartels get aggressive, they can bring 200k from Mexico alone

If the cartels are allowed to do that, the U.S. military are going in.

22 posted on 03/01/2025 11:53:56 AM PST by Jeff Chandler
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To: ImJustAnotherOkie

I want one of those turrets atop my Ford Expedition. What a video game the morning commute would become, eh?!


23 posted on 03/01/2025 11:57:13 AM PST by Tallguy
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To: Tallguy

Yes sir, that’s the ticket.


24 posted on 03/01/2025 11:58:32 AM PST by ImJustAnotherOkie
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

There’s a battle worth fighting.

Sign me up, I am ready, willing, but maybe not so able at 74.


25 posted on 03/01/2025 11:58:44 AM PST by Biblebelter
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

The missing key ingredient is authorization to use deadly force.


26 posted on 03/01/2025 12:00:54 PM PST by SpaceBar
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

“officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity”
Why can’t the DOD speak for itself? Why must it always be an anonymous source? Isn’t that the same as a leaker?
Find these “anonymous sources”, and purge them from the ranks, charge them with espionage, and execute them.
This subversion of our Defense Department must stop.


27 posted on 03/01/2025 12:38:19 PM PST by Fireone (1.Avoid crowds 2.Head on a swivel 3.Be prepared to protect & defend those around you 4.Avoid crowds)
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To: ImJustAnotherOkie

This is the number one border that Trump is really concerned about! Russia Ukrainian not so much.


28 posted on 03/01/2025 12:39:34 PM PST by magua (It's not racism, it's just that thisBecause it’s being reported that a lot of this started in 2015.)
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To: SpaceBar

Trump should follow up his first term creation of Space Force by creating the Border Guard, a land based military force akin to the Coast Guard that is not limited by posse comitatus. The Border Guard would be under the Dept of Homeland Security in times of peace and transferred to the Dept of Defense in time of war (like the Coast Guard). This could free up LEO organizations like ICE and CBP for larger scale immigration enforcement while establishing a permanent military force (and associated infrastructure) tasked with protecting our borders.

While we’re adding a new uniformed service, we can scrap 2 others; the United States Public Health Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Corps. These services have no business wearing military uniforms.


29 posted on 03/01/2025 12:42:25 PM PST by ETCM (“There is no security, no safety, in the appeasement of evil.” — Ronald Reagan)
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To: magua

That’s the biggest threat.


30 posted on 03/01/2025 12:57:24 PM PST by ImJustAnotherOkie
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To: Tallguy

Ummmm... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEU81qg9944


31 posted on 03/01/2025 1:02:32 PM PST by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
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To: ImJustAnotherOkie

Reduced ammo capacity if we do that - and volume of fire is needed especially now that the cartels are bringing drones.


32 posted on 03/01/2025 1:06:27 PM PST by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
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To: Tallguy

If you meant 50mm - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XM913_chain_gun


33 posted on 03/01/2025 1:07:01 PM PST by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
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To: ETCM

If the Rio Grande is navigable, the USCG can do that job AND as the world’s premiere maritime law enforcement agency it has a lot of alien migration experience.


34 posted on 03/01/2025 1:07:25 PM PST by Clutch Martin ("The dawn cracks hard like a bull whip and it ain't taking no lip from the night before" Tom Waits)
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To: ImJustAnotherOkie

25mm is anti-tank/AA. I don’t think we have an active 50mm gun


35 posted on 03/01/2025 1:10:27 PM PST by AppyPappy (If Hitler were alive today and criticized Trump, would he still be Hitler?)
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To: dp0622
WT# is “fraught” about it?!

The comPost hasn't shaken its decades-old communist anti-American habits.

36 posted on 03/01/2025 1:15:29 PM PST by NorthMountain (... the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
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To: Jeff Chandler

Yes, I believe that’s been the intention all along.

Arresting a few cartel bosses here and there won’t remove them. We’ll need to dig deeper... Much deeper.


37 posted on 03/01/2025 1:17:01 PM PST by sten (fighting tyranny never goes out of style)
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To: SpaceBar
The missing key ingredient is authorization to use deadly force.

Bingo.

Soldiers are trained to kill people and break things. If that's not their mission, sending them to the border is stupid.

38 posted on 03/01/2025 1:17:39 PM PST by NorthMountain (... the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
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To: Tallguy

Overkill is the 33 operational AC-130J Ghostriders, Block 20 with: Precision Strike Package with 30mm and 105mm cannons and Standoff Precision Guided Munitions i.e. GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb, GBU-69B Small Glide Munition, AGM-114 Hellfire missile, AGM-176 Griffin A missiles

All other earlier variants retired.


39 posted on 03/01/2025 1:50:14 PM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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To: sten

If the cartels get aggressive, they can bring 200k from Mexico alone.


which, with their light infantry armament, will mean they will have to resort to meat waves to get a few feet gained each day.


40 posted on 03/01/2025 1:52:51 PM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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