Under the pretext of a non-existent “invasion” of immigrants, President Donald Trump has ordered the further deployment of thousands of armed, combat-ready US military forces along the US-Mexico border.

Over the weekend, fascist Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ordered an additional 3,000 active-duty US Army soldiers to be sent to the border, on top of the already 1,600 soldiers and 2,500 Marines announced last month. Troops are currently deployed throughout the Southwest United States, including in the states of California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. Posting on his X account Saturday, Hegseth wrote “We are dead serious about 100% OPERATIONAL CONTROL of the southern border.”

US Northern Command announced on Saturday that the bulk of the soldiers (2,400) deploying will be from the 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, from Fort Carson, Colorado. The Stryker is an eight-wheeled, 20-ton infantry combat vehicle and troop carrier.

“Tasks” for the Stryker teams, according to the military, include “detection and monitoring; administrative support; transportation support; warehousing and logistic support; vehicle maintenance; and engineering support.” As of now, Army personnel “will not conduct or be involved in interdiction or deportation operations,” according to the military.

Stryker combat teams were first deployed in November 2003 during the invasion of Iraq and have also been deployed to Afghanistan as part of the US’s “global war on terror.” The Biden administration also provided the Ukrainian military Stryker vehicles to assist in the Kursk incursion last year. Stryker combat teams have also previously deployed to the southern border during the Obama administration in 2012.

Other units deploying to the border, the military confirmed on Saturday, include 500 soldiers from the 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade from Fort Stewart, Georgia and propagandists from the 19th Public Affairs Detachment out of Fort Riley, Kansas. According to the military, the latest deployments will bring the total number of soldiers on the border to “approximately 9,000.”

The militarization of the US-Mexico border is part of the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to prepare for the deployment of the US military domestically against all political opposition to the policies of the financial oligarchy. Since his inauguration, Trump has issued a flurry of executive orders attacking the democratic rights of the entire working class, including those with or without “papers.”

On the same day the latest troop deployment was announced, Trump signed an executive order declaring English the “official” language of the United States. Seeking to whip up racists in his base and divide the working class, the first sentence of the order falsely declares: “From the founding of our Republic, English has been used as our national language.”

As a matter of fact, throughout the nearly 250-year history of the United States, there has been no “national” language designated by the US government, English or otherwise. The founders did not include an English provision in the US Constitution and according to a 2019 US Census Bureau report, almost 1 in 5 people, or nearly 68 million in the United States speak a language other than English at home, nearly triple the 23.1 million the agency recorded in 1980.

The racist and chauvinist order is not only a symptom of the vast cultural and social decline in the United States, but part of the broader attack on any and all social services provided by the US government. Trump’s order lays the groundwork for banning all multi-lingual services and government communication, leaving non-English speakers unable to communicate with government officials or agencies.

Notably, Trump’s EO revokes President Bill Clinton’s Executive Order 13166 of August 11, 2000 (Improving Access to Services for Persons with Limited English Proficiency). EO 13166 required federal agencies to provide services to those with limited English proficiency.

Trump’s EO will not only make it much harder for non-English speakers to apply for federal benefits they would normally be entitled to, but could also lead to voter disenfranchisement, unemployment as well as hasten deportation proceedings.

While the US government estimates some 11 million people are not “authorized” to be in the country, the deportation agencies do not know exactly where everyone lives. The Washington Post reported last week that officials with the Department of Homeland Security were requesting senior officials at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) provide the home addresses of 700,000 people to DHS for possible deportation

The IRS has, so far, refused multiple requests to divulge the lists. Since its inception, the IRS has maintained a strict policy of refusing to share taxpayer data with any outside agency on a broad scale, but has shared taxpayer information with the Department of Justice and DHS during criminal investigations.

Despite claims from fascists and racists, immigrants, including undocumented persons, are still obligated to pay taxes in the United States even though they are not eligible for many benefits including Social Security. In order to encourage immigrants who are not eligible for Social Security to file taxes, the IRS provides individual taxpayer numbers or ITINS.

The Post, quoting a “federal official,” reported that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) may want to gain access to the IRS databases because they would contain ITINS that can be linked to current workplaces, home addresses and even family information, such as the number of children and their ages.

Seeking to expand the deportation apparatus, last week the Trump administration announced it was reopening a 1,000-bed detention facility in Newark, New Jersey. Currently some 43,000 people are incarcerated at public and private detention facilities throughout the United States and at the notorious Guantánamo migrant concentration camp.

While the immigration gestapo has conducted more arrests under Trump compared to Biden’s last year in office, National Public Radio reported over the weekend that arrests and deportations “have not kept up with the goals set by the Trump administration.” After previously posting daily updates of the number of arrests in January, ICE stopped publishing totals after they declined to under 1,000 per day.

NPR, citing DHS data, reported that the latest figures show that less than 600 people per day on average were booked into detention facilities, well below the 1,200 to 1,500 arrests per day demanded by Trump.

Among those arrested by US Customs and Border Protection in the last month include 26-year-old German tourist and artist Jessica Brösche. After meeting up with her American best friend Nikita Lofving in Tijuana, Mexico, Brösche was arrested trying to cross into the US at the San Diego border crossing.

Despite having a return flight to Berlin on February 15, Brösche has been incarcerated for over a month after CBP agents accused her of violating the terms of her visa waiver program because they claim she intended to work as a tattoo artist while visiting her friend in Los Angeles.

In an interview with ABC10 in San Diego, Brösche said she has been at the Otay Mesa Detention Center for over a month after previously being held in solitary confinement for eight days in ICE custody. “It was horrible. Like it’s really horrible,” she told the outlet.

Lofving told ABC that after being held in solitary, staff at the private detention facility tried to prescribe Brösche anti-psychotic medicine. “She says it was like a horror movie,” Lofving said. “They were screaming in all different rooms. After nine days, she said she went so insane that she started punching the walls and then she’s got blood on her knuckles.”