Trump orders military to plan to ‘seal the borders’
Inaugural-day executive order instructs NORTHCOM to “repel forms of invasion”—a legal formulation that might not stick.
Bradley Peniston | January 21, 2025
The U.S. military must produce a plan to “seal the borders” under an executive order signed Monday by the new president. But experts suggest that the order may set up a legal challenge that turns on the word “invasion.”
“Unchecked unlawful mass migration and the unimpeded flow of opiates across our borders continue to endanger the safety and security of the American people and encourage further lawlessness,” says the order, entitled “Clarifying the Military’s Role in Protecting the Territorial Integrity of the United States.”
Explaining the militarization of what the United States has long viewed as a border-patrol and law-enforcement mission, the order casts migrants and drug flows as threats to U.S. "sovereignty" and "territorial integrity." As it happens, migrant flows have plummeted in the past year from record highs in late 2023, according to Customs and Border Patrol data.
https://www.defenseone.com/policy/2025/01/trump-orders-military-plan-seal-borders/402360/?oref=d1-homepage-river
