US Reserve Troops Being Sent to US/Mexico Border to Fight Drug Trafficking

"Socalj" for Borderland Beat

US President Joe Biden signed an Executive Order giving the green light to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas to deploy active duty reserve troops to the US-Mexican border as needed. This order has been passed in order to combat the illegal drug trade.

“The authorities that have been invoked will ensure the Department of Defense can properly sustain its support of the Department of Homeland Security concerning international drug trafficking along the Southwest Border,” wrote Biden in a message to Congress accompanying the order.

The order is based on the White House’s declaration of a national emergency in December 2021 regarding international drug trafficking. Biden has blamed “drug cartels, transnational criminal organizations, and their facilitators” for bringing “illicit drugs and precursor chemicals” and “drug-related violence” into American communities.

Executive Order

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.), and in furtherance of Executive Order 14059 of December 15, 2021 (Imposing Sanctions on Foreign Persons Involved in the Global Illicit Drug Trade), which declared a national emergency to address the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States posed by international drug trafficking, it is hereby ordered as follows:

Section 1. Emergency Authority. 

To provide additional authority to the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Homeland Security to respond to the national emergency declared in Executive Order 14059, the authority under section 12302 of title 10, United States Code, is invoked and made available, according to its terms, to the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Homeland Security. The Secretaries of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, at the direction of the Secretary of Defense, and the Secretary of Homeland Security with respect to the Coast Guard when it is not operating as a service in the Navy, are authorized to order to active duty such units and individual members of the Ready Reserve under the jurisdiction of the Secretary concerned as the Secretary concerned considers necessary, consistent with the terms of section 12302 of title 10, United States Code.

TO THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES:

Effective today, pursuant to the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.) and section 12302 of title 10, United States Code, and in order to respond to the national emergency declared in Executive Order 14059 of December 15, 2021 (Imposing Sanctions on Foreign Persons Involved in the Global Illicit Drug Trade), I am authorizing the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Homeland Security to order to active duty such units and individual members of the Ready Reserve under the jurisdiction of the Secretary concerned as the Secretary concerned considers necessary, consistent with the terms of section 12302 of title 10, United States Code. The authorities that have been invoked will ensure the Department of Defense can properly sustain its support of the Department of Homeland Security concerning international drug trafficking along the Southwest Border.

Ready Reserve Forces

The Ready Reserve Forces are often called to active duty and provide additional authority to the DOD and HSI (the Coast Guard functions both as law enforcement and military) to assist in various national emergencies, threats, and during wartime. This ranges from natural disaster assistance, to riot control, wartime combat, and humanitarian care. 

For example, former President George W. Bush issued an Executive Order following the 9/11 terrorist attacks and a national emergency declared against terrorism. Authority for the reserve forces was given to the Department of Defense and the Department of Transportation. Another order by former President Trump called up the reserve military during the initial stages of the Covid-19 pandemic to assist at hospitals and distribute food and other items.

The Posse Comitatus Act is an 1878 law that prohibits federal troops from engaging in most domestic law enforcement activities. However, the Insurrection Act of 1807, allows the President to activate troops during emergencies to perform certain law enforcement duties, with or without a governor’s request. As Biden has referenced a national emergency against drug traffickers based on the December 2021 EO sanctioning the groups, it has yet to be seen what if any law enforcement roles the Reserve Ready troops will undertake.

Under current law, the Posse Comitatus Act applies to active-duty forces and National Guard units activated under Title 10 orders, for federal-level missions. National Guardsmen can also be activated under Title 32 orders, for state-level missions. They are often called in to quell riots. President Lyndon B Johnson even called in Airborne divisions of the US Army to end riots in 1967 Detroit. The 1992 Los Angeles riots following the Rodney King beating acquittal of 4 police officers came to an end after not only the National Guard but US Marines were called into the area.

Past Troops Supporting Border Operations

Trump’s decision to deploy 5,200 active-duty troops to the U.S. southern border to help with some Department of Homeland Security operations there in 2018 added to over 2,000 National Guardsmen already deployed in border operations. The troops were not allowed to detain immigrants, seize drugs from smugglers, or have any direct involvement in stopping migrant caravans. They would help with support roles such as maintaining facilities, and vehicles and transporting supplies and personnel to free up law enforcement agents to focus their efforts on frontline duties. Generally, US troops are authorized to use force in self-defense.

Also in 2018, the California National Guard pledged up to 400 troops to the president’s border mission. Jerry Brown, the only Democratic governor in the four states bordering Mexico said the California troops would help fight transnational criminal gangs and drug and firearms smugglers. They would not aid in stopping migrants.

Past US Military Use Against Drug Traffickers

While there have been, and likely currently are covert military actions against cartels, and supporting law enforcement and foreign militaries, rarely has there been authorization for US troops to fight traffickers directly. In one case, a group of Border Patrol agents tracking drug smugglers in the remote Arizona desert in August 2018 called on a National Guard helicopter to keep an eye on the suspects and guide agents on the ground until they had them in custody. That operation resulted in several arrests and the seizure of 465 pounds of marijuana. The US military has sent advisers and equipment to Mexican forces and has helped trained several military groups, notably the Mexican Marines who were tasked to apprehend "El Chapo" and had killed several cartel leaders including Arturo Beltran-Leyva and "Tony Tormenta."

In the 1980s, various options to allow the US military to operate in Colombia against Pablo Escobar and the Medellin Cartel were explored. The 3 options were to not involve the troops, to politically pressure Colombia to invite US troops, and to send troops there without the consent of Colombia. Also explored was an option to push the UN to declare the country a conflict zone and allow peacekeeping troops to enter the country. It is widely believed that US special forces, including the Army's Delta Force, were operating in Colombia against Escobar but no major military action or troops were authorized.

In 1989, the invasion of Panama included US Marines in order to arrest and extradite Pamanian President General Manuel Noriega on money laundering, racketeering, and drug trafficking charges. Noriega had enabled Colombian traffickers to set up routes through Panama and he amassed a fortune in overseas banks until 1984 when he began to publicly oppose and crack down on cartel operations under pressure from the US government. Noriega had several rivals and vocal critics, including those that accused him of ties to narco-traffickers killed and his relationship with US agencies further deteriorated. An indictment for drug smuggling was issued in 1988. At the end of 1989, a US Marine was killed by PDF forces, and the US launched an invasion to remove Noriega from power.

In 2012, at the height of Los Zetas violence, 200 US Marines were deployed into Guatemala to go after members of that cartel during Operation Martillo (Hammer). This was beyond the previous role of US troops in training local forces and assisting in building infrastructure. As part of Operation Martillo, the Marines began patrolling Guatemala's western coast to find "narco-submarines" and shiploads of drugs.

The Marines were not authorized to directly target traffickers but they could spot them and relay that information to local forces. However, they could have easily been brought into the conflict as they were allowed to fight back in self-defense had they been attacked during their operations. During that time, the DEA, working with Guatemalan troops was involved in numerous firefights, including the deaths of several civilians. Similarly, National Guard troops were sent to Honduras at that time as well.

Push to Label Cartels as Terrorist Groups

Numerous indictments and sanctions have been made recently against the drug cartels, namely CDS and its Los Chapitos faction as well as CJNG. Last month, a group of 20 Republican Congressmen presented a bill that would designate the Gulf Cartel, Cartel de Noreste, Sinaloa Cartel, and Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion as “foreign terrorist organizations." This would not only allow for increased sanctions and charges (but not drastically different from the current Kingpin Act laws) but also open up authorization for the US military to pursue the terrorist cartels.

A similar kind of bill from the Senate would be labeling 9 such organizations as terrorists and operations would be conducted to dismantle them. Many Republicans including former US President Donald Trump and former Navy SEAL Texas Senator Dan Crenshaw have urged for a military solution to the cartel problem. Previously, the Biden administration received a petition to identify cartels as terrorist organizations by the solicitors general of 21 US states.

Several times, the possibility of sending US troops into Mexico has been brought up, including following the Culiacanazo battle that forced Ovidio Guzman Lopez to be set free, the La Baron massacre, and during the violent years of the Los Zetas. Each time, Mexico has fought this possible attack on its sovereignty and dismissed the notion.

Graphics by HEARST

Sources: White House, White House, Federal Register, Military Times, Military, Military Times, NPR, Wired