The U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) has confirmed that approximately 200 Marines from Marine Wing Support Squadron 272 (based at Marine Corps Air Station New River, North Carolina) are being deployed to Florida to provide
The move is part of a broader initiative by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to mobilize up to
According to USNORTHCOM’s announcement:
The Marines will not participate in law-enforcement activities, arrests, or custody functions. USNI News+2CBS News+2
Their tasks are described as “administrative and logistical,” including case-management, data-entry, vehicle maintenance, transportation and other support functions as directed by ICE.
They are specifically prohibited from “direct contact with individuals in ICE custody or involvement in any aspect of the custody chain.” Quân Đội
+2CBS News+2
The request by DHS for military support came on May 9, 2025. Task & Purpose+1
The first wave of 200 Marines is described as the initial deployment; subsequent forces are planned for other states.
The deployment aligns with other interior immigration-enforcement efforts by the Trump administration, including previously deployed forces in Los Angeles and along the southern border. Quân Đội
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The involvement of active-duty Marines in domestic immigration operations draws attention because of the long-standing legal and constitutional limits on military participation in law enforcement (especially under the Posse Comitatus Act). While the Marines here are not performing arrests, the deployment underscores the grey zone between military support and law enforcement.
From an operational perspective, ICE has said its detention and processing capacity is under pressure; having military logistics and administrative support may help free ICE agents to focus on enforcement tasks.
On the political front, the deployment is likely to become a flash point in debates over immigration policy, military-civilian boundaries, states-rights, and federal power.
Some civil-liberties groups, state officials, and lawmakers have expressed concern over the optics of uniformed troops assisting immigration enforcement, even if in non-enforcement roles.
The state of Florida and other Southern states where such operations are planned may face questions about coordination, oversight and transparency of military support in immigration contexts.
The broader program that includes Texas and Louisiana may prompt additional legal, operational and budgetary scrutiny.
The Marines involved will operate under Title 10 status, meaning they are doing federal duty rather than National Guard duty under state control. This influences command/control, funding, jurisdiction and oversight.
While they are not conducting arrests or detention directly, their support of ICE facilities means they may be positioned at or near detention centers, processing locations, transport hubs or logistic sites.
The DoD will need to monitor, document and ensure compliance with applicable laws governing domestic military support for civilian agencies.
Having additional personnel for logistics and administration may accelerate ICE’s processing of detainees, transportation of individuals, data-entry workload, maintenance of facilities, and other non-direct-custody tasks.
The deployment may free up ICE agents to handle more enforcement actions or expand operations in other locations.
Facilities in Florida—possibly including the controversial Everglades detention site sometimes referred to in media as “Alligator Alcatraz” — may receive this support.
Approx. 200 Marines have been sent to Florida to support ICE in non-law-enforcement roles.
The deployment is the first wave of a larger authorization of up to
The troops will not perform arrests or custody functions — their role is administrative/logistical.
The move raises legal,
For ICE, this may provide much-needed capacity support; for critics, it signals an escalation of the federal immigration enforcement approach.
Where exactly in Florida these Marines will operate (which facilities, locations) and how transparent the operations will be.
The deployment of the remainder of the 700 troopers and how Texas and Louisiana implement similar support.
Legal challenges or oversight efforts regarding the military’s involvement in civilian immigration operations.
The effect on ICE capacity: will processing speed, detention transfers or deportation numbers increase?
State and local reactions — whether governors, state legislatures or municipalities respond with resistance or cooperation.
Political fallout: how this becomes a talking point in upcoming elections, shaping debates over immigration, national security and federalism.
President Trump said Sunday that House Republicans should vote to release all files related to the late financier Jeffrey Epstein, reversing his earlier stance in which he had urged GOP lawmakers not to support a measure requiring their disclosure. The House is expected to vote Tuesday on a bill that would require the Justice Department to release all materials related to the Jeffrey Epstein case.
The vote is proceeding despite opposition from GOP leadership, after a discharge petition secured the necessary 218 signatures last week. The legislation would also need to pass the Senate and receive President Trump’s signature to become law.
“House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide, and it’s time to move on from this Democrat Hoax perpetrated by Radical Left Lunatics in order to deflect from the Great Success of the Republican Party,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday evening.
As of Sunday night, the president had not indicated whether he would urge Senate Republicans to support the measure or whether he would sign it if it reaches his desk, the New York Post reported.
The discharge petition was signed by all 214 House Democrats, as well as Republicans Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Nancy Mace of South Carolina, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia — a development that drew criticism from Trump.
On Wednesday, the House Oversight Committee released more than 20,000 pages of documents provided by Jeffrey Epstein’s estate.
In the emails, Epstein — who died on Aug. 10, 2019, in a Manhattan jail cell while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges — claimed that former President Trump was aware of his alleged grooming and sexual abuse of underage girls. The documents do not independently corroborate Epstein’s assertions, The Post noted.
“[O]f course he knew about the girls as he asked [G]hislaine to stop,” Epstein wrote to author Michael Wolff in a Jan. 31, 2019, email, referring to Ghislaine Maxwell’s recruitment of victims from the spa at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. Wolff’s credibility has been widely questioned.
The next day, Epstein wrote in an email to himself that although “Trump knew of it, and came to my house many times during that period,” the future president “never got a massage.”
Trump and Epstein were known to be socially acquainted during the 1990s and early 2000s before reportedly falling out during a bidding dispute over a now-demolished mansion in Palm Beach, Fla.
On Friday, President Trump said he would direct the Department of Justice and the FBI to investigate Epstein’s “involvement and relationship with Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, Reid Hoffman, J.P. Morgan, Chase, and many other people and institutions, to determine what was going on with them, and him.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi later confirmed that she had asked Manhattan U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton to lead the inquiry.
“[T]he House Oversight Committee can have whatever they are legally entitled to, I DON’T CARE!” Trump reiterated in his Sunday post. “All I do care about is that Republicans get BACK ON POINT.”
“Nobody cared about Jeffrey Epstein when he was alive and, if the Democrats had anything, they would have released it before our Landslide Election Victory. Some ‘members’ of the Republican Party are being ‘used,’ and we can’t let that happen,” he added.
“Let’s start talking about the Republican Party’s Record Setting Achievements, and not fall into the Epstein ‘TRAP,’ which is actually a curse on the Democrats, not us. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
Newly released documents from Epstein’s estate, meanwhile, show that the convicted sex offender exchanged text messages with a Democratic member of Congress during Michael Cohen’s February 2019 testimony, and that those messages may have influenced the congresswoman’s questioning of Cohen.
The documents, published Wednesday by the House Oversight Committee, include copies of Epstein’s digital communications, emails, and text messages, The Washington Post reported.
In the texts, Epstein appeared to be watching the hearing in real time and notified the congresswoman — whose name was redacted in the documents — that Cohen had mentioned former Trump executive assistant Rhona Graff during his testimony.