What Is the Air Force Doing on the Southern Border?
Militaries exist, in most contexts, to help nations preserve their borders. In that sense, the application of U.S. assets towards stemming illegal immigration is a commonsense application of military might.
Newly disclosed statistics show that the U.S. Air Force has conducted 53 surveillance missions around the U.S.-Mexico border. The purpose of the missions, conducted with both crewed and uncrewed aircraft, has been “to gather intelligence on foreign cartels, drug and human trafficking, and illegal migration,” Air & Space Forces Magazine reported.
“Protecting the homeland is our top priority and it always will be,” said Air Force Chief of Staff David W. Allvin. “Airmen have executed over 50 intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance flights in support of U.S. Northern Command.”
The Air Force’s Mission Aligns with Trump’s Campaign Promises
The flurry of military activity along the U.S.-Mexico border corresponds with the changing of administration in Washington. The new Trump administration had emphasized on the campaign trail that stemming illegal immigration and illegal drug trafficking across the southern border would be its top priority. Since taking the oath of office in January, Trump has made good on that promise, recalibrating military operations to focus on the border.
Indeed, the fact that the heavy involvement of U.S. Air Force assets in the skies above North America is newsworthy at all speaks to the times America finds itself in. For decades, U.S. foreign policy has been geared toward foreign conflict. To see military assets devoted to domestic purpose sometimes garners a double-take.
But protecting the homeland, as General Allvin said, should be the priority of any nation’s military. Every military operation—foreign or domestic—should be framed with the ultimate question in mind: does this make our nation safer? Does it help preserve our government? Does it help preserve our territorial integrity?
These are basic fundamentals that U.S. policy makers and war planners should bear in mind when deciding when and where to use American military assets. So while using Air Force aircraft to conduct ISR missions along the U.S.-Mexico border breaks with precedent and may seem counterintuitive at first blush—or at least unusual, considering that such missions are usually handled by the DHS or FBI—the mission profile likely supports America’s fundamental strategic objectives more closely than, say, intervention in the Middle East.
America’s Border Problem Is a National Security Threat
Illegal immigration has become a political hot-button issue, and is usually invoked in that context.
In security terms, though, illegal immigration poses an existential problem. Indeed, illegal immigration compromises one of the very concepts defining what a nation is: territorial integrity. Nations have borders, and a properly functioning nation must control who may, and who may not, enter its borders. Militaries exist, in most contexts, to help nations preserve their borders. In that sense, the application of U.S. assets towards stemming illegal immigration is a commonsense application of military might.
Drug trafficking, human trafficking, general cartel activity—these things pose less of an existential dilemma than a foreign invasion. But undoubtedly, drug and human trafficking pose security risks and the threat of domestic harm. And again, the use of military assets to stem such security risks and domestic harms, gets to the core of why militaries exist.
The habitual interventionist policies of the American military have made more domestic, North American-focused missions seem counterintuitive. But the U.S. Air Force flights being conducted along the U.S.-Mexico border speak to the reason the Air Force exists in the first place.
About the Author: Harrison Kass
Harrison Kass is a senior defense and national security writer with over 1,000 total pieces on issues involving global affairs. An attorney, pilot, guitarist, and minor pro hockey player, Harrison joined the US Air Force as a Pilot Trainee but was medically discharged. Harrison holds a BA from Lake Forest College, a JD from the University of Oregon, and an MA from New York University. Harrison listens to Dokken.
Image: Wikimedia Commons.