Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Friday that "all options will be on the table" when asked by former colleagues on the "Fox & Friends" TV show whether the military is now permitted to strike within Mexico.
President Donald Trump designated cartels operating in Mexico as foreign terrorist organizations on Jan. 20 during a slew of executive orders he signed after his inauguration and amid a broader crackdown on immigration across the U.S. southern border. Last week, 1,600 active-duty troops were deployed to the border after Trump declared a national emergency.
While Hegseth said that he didn't "want to get ahead of the president" and that it is ultimately Trump's decision, he reiterated some of the language in the executive order, adding that the military is "shifting toward an understanding of homeland defense on our sovereign territorial border."
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"If we're dealing with what are designated to be foreign terrorist organizations who are specifically targeting Americans on our border," Hegseth said, going on to refer to the military's overall defense of the border and adding "that is something we will do and do robustly."
However, officials who work for Hegseth's office had little to offer in the way of details when asked about the comments -- a situation that has been common since his arrival at the Pentagon on Monday.
The idea of using the military to strike within Mexico has been floated by other Trump officials, such as "border czar" Tom Homan, who said in November that the president was "committed to calling [the cartels] terrorist organizations and using the full might of the United States special operations to take them out."
When asked whether he would send special operations forces into Mexico against the cartels last week, Trump said it "could happen, stranger things have happened."
It is unclear what a military operation inside Mexico would look like, though designating cartels as foreign terrorist organizations also broadens the legal ramifications for individuals who materially support those groups, for example.
The executive order did not name any cartels specifically, but highlighted other "transnational organizations" -- or gangs -- such as Tren de Aragua and La Mara Salvatrucha, known as MS-13.
"If we could solve the problem of fentanyl with one splendidly [surgical] Israeli-style 1967 surprise attack on 20 drug labs in Mexico and elsewhere, with or without the permission of those governments, that would be an interesting idea," Michael O'Hanlon, the director of research in the Foreign Policy Program at the Brookings Institution, said when asked about potential military operations in Mexico during an episode of Military.com's Fire Watch podcast earlier this month.
After Trump signed the executive order designating cartels as terrorist groups, Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum said that there needed to be close coordination between the country's two governments.
"We all want to fight the drug cartels," Sheinbaum said last week, according to The Associated Press. The U.S. "in their territory, us in our territory."
O'Hanlon also said that decision-makers should be cautious about seeing those moves as a "cakewalk," especially coming off of 20 years of war in the Middle East.
"Everything I know historically about trying to attack these kinds of targets with airpower or Special Forces makes me wary that we can be successful," O'Hanlon said.
Last week, 1,600 active-duty service members from the Marine Corps and Army quickly mobilized to the border amid the broader Trump administration's efforts to crack down on immigration there.
The Pentagon scheduled a briefing for reporters with a senior military official and a senior Customs and Border Protection official on Friday, but canceled the event about 8 minutes after it was set to start by telling dozens of reporters that one of the experts slated to brief the press had to go to another meeting.
When asked for details and updates Friday afternoon, a spokesperson for Joint Task Force-North referred Military.com to U.S. Northern Command, which said that there had been no increase in the number of troops deployed to the border since last week.
When asked whether the 82nd Airborne Division or 10th Mountain Division -- two units that were reported as preparing to deploy shortly after Trump issued the order -- had received orders to deploy to the border, Capt. May Morales, a spokesperson for the command, said that "a public announcement will be made as units are activated."
The 82nd Airborne is the unit typically used to quickly respond to major military crises that threaten U.S. troops, citizens or allies abroad, while the 10th Mountain Division out of Fort Drum in New York was being considered as a headquarters element for the overall response at the border.
A Marine Corps official said there was "no real change for the Marine Corps' portion" of the mission, adding that they were still doing barrier construction and repairs. Officials from the Army did not respond by deadline.
The troops deployed to the border are charged with repairing and emplacing barriers, as well as supporting "enhanced detection and monitoring efforts," a spokesperson for Northern Command said earlier this week.
They added that troops "do not engage in interdiction or law enforcement activities."
On Friday, Morales said that those enhanced detection and monitoring measures included using light rotary-wing assets such as UH-72 Lakota helicopters for aerial reconnaissance and Customs and Border Protection-owned static and mobile surveillance cameras.
She referred Military.com to the Pentagon when asked whether Northern Command was preparing options for operations within Mexico.
Meanwhile, Navy officials confirmed the service had begun to participate in the border mission Thursday when two different air wings, one out of Jacksonville, Florida, and the other out of Whidbey Island, Washington, contributed P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft to help with intelligence and surveillance efforts.
Lt. Cmdr. Lauren Chatmas, a spokeswoman for the service, wouldn't say how long the Navy planned to have its planes supporting the mission, but she noted that they are not being transferred to the area.
"They're going to remain [operating] out of their home bases; they're not going to leave and be stationed down close to the border," she said.
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