President Donald Trump’s use of thousands of U.S. troops to aid in immigration enforcement is set to cost the Defense Department from $1 billion to $2 billion this year, Pentagon officials recently told lawmakers.
The money will support a bolstered U.S. military force along the U.S.-Mexico border and the transport of immigrants to the U.S. military’s prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, said Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., in little-noticed remarks at a Tuesday hearing of the Armed Services Committee.
Reed, the committee’s top Democrat, said the immigration tasks are mostly best left to the Department of Homeland Security. They are expensive, he said, and are hurting U.S. military readiness.
