Two hundred Marines are deploying to support U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Florida, U.S. Northern Command announced.
The Marines from Marine Support Squadron 272, Marine Corps Air Station New River, North Carolina, are part of the 700 troops mobilized by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to provide logistical support to Department of Homeland Security operations after the agency requested assistance May 9.
Those 700 troops will include active duty, National Guard and Reserve forces under Title 10 authority.
The Marines traveling to Florida will be the first wave of NORTHCOM’s mobilization to assist with “critical administrative and logistical capabilities at locations as directed by ICE,” according to a Thursday release. Other troops will be deployed to Texas and Louisiana.
The support requested by DHS includes tasks related to transportation, logistics and administrative functions. The Marines are not authorized to make arrests or carry out law enforcement functions.
“Their roles will focus on administrative and logistical tasks, and they are specifically prohibited from direct contact with individuals in ICE custody or involvement in any aspect of the custody chain,” according to the release.
The use of military personnel to provide logistical support for law enforcement agencies has been standard practice for decades. As the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin noted in 1991: “Contrary to what many police officers believe, the Posse Comitatus Act permits civilian law enforcement agencies to seek military assistance under some specific circumstances.”
Typical logistical support activities in support of law enforcement regularly performed by National Guard units, for example, can include “training, technical support, services, intelligence analysis, surveillance, the installation of communications towers, permanent and temporary vehicle barriers, and pedestrian fences,” according to a 2010 report.
The mobilization of the additional 700 troops comes at a time when the Defense Department is ramping up military involvement in border security, with four military zones recently created at the southern border in Texas and Arizona to halt illegal migration and narcotics trafficking.
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Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell noted last week that 8,500 military personnel assigned to Joint Task Force Southern Border have conducted over 3,500 patrols, including in cooperation with Mexican military forces.
Additionally, he said Marines have “supported more than 170 missions in over 130 separate locations from nine federal agencies,” including DHS and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
NORTHCOM has not specified the location in Florida where the Marines will deploy and has not provided details of logistical duties they are being assigned.
While it has been speculated they could deploy to provide support at Alligator Alcatraz — a newly opened detainment facility administered by ICE in the Florida Everglades — that has not been confirmed. NORTHCOM refused Monday to provide more specifics about the deployment.
Zita Ballinger Fletcher previously served as editor of Military History Quarterly and Vietnam magazines and as the historian of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. She holds an M.A. with distinction in military history.
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