By Donald Jeffries
President Donald Trump has deployed around 10,000 troops along the southern border since reentering office, and recently sent hundreds of troops with armored vehicles to the Big Bend region of the Texas border. The puzzling thing is that the Big Bend region has the lowest rate of border crossings in the entire Southwest region, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
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Certainly, the need for a military presence along the southern border has been obvious for decades, as immigration authorities and local law enforcement essentially have done little to stop migrants crossing into the United States. But focusing on the least problematic area makes little sense.
So far in 2025, the Border Patrol has had 1,592 single adult encounters in Big Bend, as compared to the San Diego and El Paso sectors, which have experienced 42,886 and 36,092 adult encounters, respectively, this year. Big Bend recorded only 4,921 encounters for all of 2024. Some residents have complained that the Big Bend area is being turned into a “military zone.”
Just after being sworn in for a second time, Trump wrote an executive order, declaring a national emergency at the southern border, and very accurately stated:
America’s sovereignty is under attack. Our southern border is overrun by cartels, criminal gangs, known terrorists, human traffickers, smugglers, unvetted military-age males from foreign adversaries, and illicit narcotics that harm Americans. … This assault on the American people and the integrity of America’s sovereign borders represents a grave threat to our nation.
The emergency order directed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to jointly submit a report, which was due to be delivered Easter Sunday, recommending what further actions should be taken regarding the border crisis. Of great interest is the directive in the executive order to recommend whether or not Trump should invoke the Insurrection Act.
This is an ironic request, given that the term “insurrection” is now associated in the public mind with Trump’s loyal Jan. 6 protesters, who were unfairly smeared with the label.
The Insurrection Act has been used some 30 times throughout our history, the last time being in 1992, when President George H.W. Bush sent active Marines and the National Guard into Los Angeles in the wake of the Rodney King riots. The act was first used by George Washington in 1792 to forcibly crush the Whiskey Rebellion.
The act authorizes unfettered authority to use military force “whenever the president considers that unlawful obstructions, combinations, or assemblages, or rebellion against the authority of the United States make it impracticable to enforce the laws of the United States.”
This is a gray area, as American citizens are supposed to be protected by the Posse Comitatus Act, a law dating back to the Reconstruction era. It prevents the military from acting in a law enforcement capacity. The military—including National Guard troops under presidential control—are not supposed to have the constitutional authority to conduct searches of civilians or to arrest protesters.
However, invoking the Insurrection Act overrides this, and allows U.S. troops to act in a law enforcement capacity. But, again, there are contradictions as, legally speaking, U.S. troops still aren’t allowed to violate the fourth and fifth amendments to the Constitution, even under the Insurrection Act. They are still forbidden to conduct illegal searches and seizures, or to deprive the public of life, liberty, or property without due process.
Most significantly, there are no checks and balances with the Insurrection Act. It is entirely an executive power, with little if any oversight.
While border crossings have fallen dramatically since Trump came back into office, he has thus far actually deported fewer immigrants that Joe Biden did during his last year as president. The promised “mass deportations” have simply not happened, and, now, Trump is reviving his disastrous idea of “Touchback Amnesty,” which would encourage illegals to enter back into the country legally, after they had self-deported.
Incidentally, there are still U.S. troops nonsensically stationed in over 150 countries around the world. In some cases, they help secure the borders of those countries. The Biden administration sent thousands of U.S. troops to help neighboring nations to secure their borders with Ukraine. At the same time, he was leaving our southern border wide open.
What has been happening for decades at the southern border qualifies as an invasion by any definition. In this case, it is perfectly proper and constitutional to use military troops to help solve that crisis. It would take only a fraction of the troops that are serving no clear purpose in countries around the world.
Trump has mentioned bringing them home before, but has not actually done so. It shouldn’t take invoking the Insurrection Act to do so. Trump has already deployed troops to the border—and there needs to be more deployed there—and we need more deportations, and faster.
