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During a media interview today, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said morale is high among U.S. troops currently assisting with enforcement operations at the southern border because they are supporting the strengthening of their own country.
The Defense Department announced, Jan. 22, 2025, that is would be sending an additional 1,500 active-duty service members to the border to bolster the more than 2,500 other active-duty troops and National Guardsmen already in the region.
Hegseth traveled to the border, Feb. 3, 2025, to see operations firsthand and interact with the service members stationed there, many of whom serve in the pay grade of E-6 and below.
"When you're able to be in your own country [while] defending your own country … it just creates a different feel that it [may not be one's assigned duty location], but it's [also] not Afghanistan," he said.
"We've spent two decades guarding other people's borders," Hegseth said, in reference to the U.S. military's campaigns in Southwest and Central Asia since 2001.
"And when you meet these men and women on our border in real time, able to defend their communities, their families, their churches [and] their schools, they love that," he said.
"[The service members are] invested in a way that's really cool to see," he added.
Noting that he observed a "real investment" by the service members at the border, Hegseth said he sensed that their morale was further boosted by the realization that they're participating in a real mission with real-world impact rather than just a routine exercise.
"When you feel like you're just playing a bit role so some politician can say there [are] people at the border, but you're not really doing anything, people see through that," Hegseth said.
"That's not what this is like. This is a real mission, and I think [the service members] respond to it [and] appreciate it," he continued.
Regarding the overall border enforcement operation and criticisms that putting service members on the border might deter them from their ability to respond to other military contingency missions, Hegseth said he sees the opposite happening.
"In the past, there's been criticism that these types of rotations take away from readiness," he said.
"[But] I actually think this [border enforcement operation] — when you do it more robustly, the way they're turning into a joint task force and it becomes a real-world exercise — I think it [actually] contributes to readiness; there's a commitment to the mission," he added.
In addition to the status of the service members on the border, Hegseth was also asked about the current status of DOD utilizing Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to house criminal migrants.
President Donald J. Trump announced, Jan. 29, 2025, his intention to sign an executive order instructing DOD and the Department of Homeland Security to prepare Naval Station Guantanamo Bay for the detention of 30,000 criminal migrants. Yesterday, the administration announced it had begun flying migrants there.
Having seen the naval station firsthand while stationed at Guantanamo Bay as an officer on an active-duty National Guard deployment from 2004 to 2005, Hegseth described the facility as "phenomenal" and built for such a housing operation.
"You have the hardened facility for … violent gang member types who need that kind of lockdown, and then you have — on the other side of — a place built for migrants; for those who peacefully are going to be extradited out of the United States," Hegseth explained.
"We're going to find those here illegally, prioritizing those with violent or sketchy pasts, and use Guantanamo Bay as a transit way to remove them and send them back to their home ," he said.
