WaPo Confused Over Why Trump Is Deploying Troops to the Border When Crossings Are Down
The ‘Butterfield Fallacy’ and the ‘Trump Effect’
By Andrew R. Arthur on February 19, 2025
AFebruary 15 Washington Post article is headlined: “Soldiers are arriving at the border — but hardly any migrants are crossing”. The real focus is in the subheader: “Trump’s order to send troops to the border comes as the number of migrant crossings is plummeting. Residents in some border cities wonder what the soldiers will be doing”. It’s a classic example of the “Butterfield Fallacy”, but in short — the troops are there to help Border Patrol, and as long as they remain, the number of crossings will likely remain low.
A History of Troops at the Border
In December, I provided an extensive timeline of military involvement in immigration enforcement; in short, Trump isn’t the first president to send troops to assist Border Patrol in achieving its mission of stopping drugs, other contraband, and migrants from illegally crossing the Southwest border.
In May 2006, President George W. Bush sent National Guard soldiers and airmen there as part of “Operation Jump Start”, and the Obama administration followed that up with a similar program known as “Operation Phalanx”.
A “phalanx” is a “tactical formation consisting of a block of heavily armed infantry standing shoulder to shoulder in files several ranks deep”.
That’s a slightly inapt but still appropriate description of why those National Guard troops were there — as a show of force with the added value of providing Border Patrol agents technical, surveillance, intelligence, and transportation assistance.
https://cis.org/Arthur/WaPo-Confused-Over-Why-Trump-Deploying-Troops-Border-When-Crossings-Are-Down
