Active-Duty Troops Inside Detention Facilities Harms the United States

Washington, D.C.—In response to reports that active-duty U.S. troops are now stationed inside Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) facilities at the U.S. southern border, Human Rights First’s Bishop Garrison issued the following statement:

This is not why our men and women in uniform signed up to serve and it does them a disservice. Being stationed in detention facilities undermines our troops’ readiness for real crises. Our military is made up of the best and brightest our nation has to offer, but the longer our troops are used to carry out a misguided and cruel political agenda, the more our nation suffers for it. The president needs to provide the asylum system with the resources it needs, not militarize the border.

Human Rights First, in partnership with more than a dozen organizations with refugee and regional human rights expertise, recently released a new blueprint offering concrete steps to manage the humanitarian crisis at the U.S. southern border and to address the damage the Trump Administration’s mismanagement of it has caused.