$2B in Pentagon funds diverted to immigration operations, congressional Democrats say

(WASHINGTON) — A report prepared by Democratic members of Congress says the Pentagon has diverted at least $2 billion of its own funds to support the Trump administration’s immigration operations, negatively impacting what they say is the U.S. military’s readiness.

Separately, a response from Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to questions posed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., that was shared with ABC News disclosed that two major military exercises were canceled this year and a third was scaled back as a result of the deployment of military forces to immigration operations.

Caine said that both the “Vibrant Response” exercise scheduled for April and May, as well as a rotation by the 10th Mountain Division at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, Louisiana, over the summer were canceled because of the deployment.

The large-scale national “Ardent Sentry” exercise in March that U.S. Northern Command uses to train responses to chemical, radiological, biological and nuclear incidents was also “Descoped” according to Caine’s response.

In a statement to ABC News about the report, the Pentagon said with a $1 trillion budget it’s able to carry out multiple missions simultaneously.

Compiled from open source information and reprogramming requests made by the Pentagon to Congress, the review of Pentagon border funding by Democrats in Congress found that $1.3 billion of that amount had been diverted to pay for the deployment of troops and resources to the Southwest border with Mexico.

The report cited a Pentagon request to Congress in late May to reprogram $200 million in funds approved for worldwide military construction projects to construct a 30-foot-high steel bollard barrier along a 20-mile stretch of the border near Yuma, Arizona.

The diverted funds were originally slated to pay for the construction of new military facilities, including military housing, and two elementary schools run by the DOD’s Education Activity (DODEA) at Fort Knox, Kentucky, and Stuttgart, Germany.

The deployment of active duty forces to the Southwest Border began in January shortly after the start of President Donald Trump’s second term with more than 7,000 personnel assigned to support federal law enforcement agencies operating along the border.

Since April, the Trump administration has designated military zones covering large swaths of the border where U.S. forces have the authority to temporarily detain any migrants trespassing what are now considered to be extensions of military bases.

On Wednesday, the Interior Department announced that a fourth National Defense Area had been established along California’s border with Mexico. Previous NDA designations stretched along the border in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.

The Democrats’ review found that the high-profile deployment of federalized National Guard and active-duty troops to Los Angeles; Chicago; Portland, Oregon; and Memphis, Tennessee, has cost at least $258 million.

At least $420 million was diverted to assist with the detention of immigrants at military bases in the United States as well as overseas bases at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti, according to the report.

The review found that least $40.3 million has been spent on paying for the U.S. military flights used to deport and transport migrants back to their home countries instead of using the cheaper flights contracted by the Department of Homeland Security.

“This is a baffling waste of military resources considering the appropriation of $170 billion to DHS to fund immigration enforcement earlier this year,” said the report. It added that the information used to compile the report indicated that “the vast majority of these funds have not been reimbursed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), to date.”

“We are particularly concerned that DHS may not be reimbursing DoD for these funds,” a group of Democratic lawmakers wrote to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in a letter that included a copy of the report. “Allowing DHS to continue to pick DoD’s pockets puts our military readiness at risk.”

The Pentagon’s press secretary said in a statement that because of its large annual budget the Department is able to carry out a variety of operations.

“The Pentagon, which operates on an annual budget of nearly $1 Trillion is able to execute on many missions at the same time, including operations with DHS, improvements for DODEA, and facility constructions across the country and the world,” said Kingsley Wilson, the Pentagon press secretary.

“Many additional priorities have been funded thanks to the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill,” she added, referring to President Donald Trump’s signature tax and policy bill approved by Congress over the summer. “Spending allocated money on one mission does not mean other missions become depleted.”

The report was released by Warren and Rep. James Garamendi, D-Calif., who criticized the Trump administration for what they said was an unnecessary diversion of funds at the expense of military readiness.

In a statement Warren criticized Hegseth and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem for “using the defense budget as a slush fund for political stunts.”

“It’s an insult to our service members that Pete Hegseth and Kristi Noem are using the defense budget as a slush fund for political stunts,” Warren said in a statement. “Stripping military resources to promote a wasteful political agenda doesn’t make our military stronger or Americans safer.”

In a separate statement, Garamendi said: “Diverting over $2 billion in funds siphons money away from training, modernization, and maintenance: core investments that should support military families and prepare our forces to fight and win.”

On Thursday, the Senate Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing with top Pentagon officials including Gen. Gregory Guillot, the commander of U.S. Northern Command, to discuss the deployment of federalized National Guardsmen to several U.S. cities.

The hearing is expected to touch on the legality of the deployments and whether they were necessary.

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