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A new GAO report reveals the Pentagon did not fully evaluate the costs and impacts on readiness of deploying troops to the nation’s southwest border.
It also revealed that the Department of Homeland Security wants some troops to remain at the U.S.-Mexico border for at least the next three years.
That’s what DHS officials told GAO investigators, anticipating a need for at least the current level of support for “the next three to five years, possibly more.”
There are currently about 3,600 troops, mostly Guardsmen, on the border supporting Border Patrol agents. The mission is approved through the end of the current fiscal year.
According to the report, the Defense Department estimated the cost of the mission from April 2018 to September 2020 was nearly $1 billion. But that did not include expenses at 15 bases that supported troops deployed to the border, nor did it include the cost of reimbursing Guardsmen troops for expenses.
The GAO report also found that the Pentagon did not report some unit-level effects, according to The Hill. That includes an active-component aviation brigade that missed a large-scale training opportunity at the National Training Center because of the deployment and pilots who had trouble fulfilling individual training requirements.
Officials made seven recommendations to DoD in the report, including ways to improve its analysis and reporting of costs and readiness impacts. Defense officials disagreed with all but one of the recommendations, standing by their analysis and decision-making process.
