Pentagon’s border mission spending surges past $300M

The Trump administration’s military deployment to the southern border has already cost more than $328 million, according to sources briefed on internal Defense Department data—even as the White House pushes to cut the overall defense budget by 8 percent.

As reported by CNN, the costs, disclosed in a briefing to lawmakers earlier this month, include the deployment of approximately 9,000 active-duty troops, expansion of facilities at Guantanamo Bay, and use of military aircraft for deportation flights. The price tag could surpass $2 billion in the first year if the current pace continues.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has made border security the Pentagon’s “foremost priority,” superseding traditional nation-state priorities such as China and Russia. The administration deployed two Navy warships near the US-Mexico border and ramped up aerial surveillance near Baja California in February.

The surge lacks strategic coherence, according to some. “They’re not even building a plan,” a defense official told CNN. “It’s almost, like, they’re just like, here’s more toys. Go do something.”

While the administration frames the operation as a response to what it terms an “invasion” of migrants and fentanyl, actual border crossings have plummeted following asylum restrictions imposed by President Biden in 2024 and much further in Trump’s term. Homeland Security officials report that only a few hundred migrants are crossing daily.

Military deportation flights, originally expected to be a cornerstone of the operation, now average just one per week. Plans to house up to 30,000 migrants at Guantanamo Bay remain unrealized. Some of the 900 troops deployed there may soon be sent home.

The use of military resources in domestic law enforcement settings raises legal concerns under the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act, though administration officials are exploring ways to skirt those restrictions by reclassifying border zones as military installations.