Militarization

Border Patrol Academy Reaches Highest Enrollment Since 2009 With 1,100 Trainees as Trump Administration Militarizes Enforcement Training

| Importance: 8/10

The U.S. Border Patrol Academy in Artesia, New Mexico, reached enrollment of approximately 1,100 trainees in December 2025—the highest level since 2009—as U.S. Customs and Border Protection pursues plans to hire roughly 3,000 additional Border Patrol agents on top of the more than 19,000 already …

U.S. Border Patrol U.S. Customs and Border Protection Donald Trump Department of Homeland Security border patrol cbp recruitment training militarization +5 more
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Trump Officials Flee to Military Bases: Miller, Noem, Hegseth, Rubio Create Militarized "Green Zone"

| Importance: 9/10

On October 30, 2025, multiple senior Trump administration officials relocated to military housing on U.S. bases in the Washington D.C. area, citing security threats from protesters following the assassination of activist Charlie Kirk. The moves create what critics describe as a militarized …

Charlie Kirk Kristi Noem Marco Rubio Pete Hegseth Stephen Miller accountability-evasion civil-military-relations green-zone isolation kristi-noem +5 more
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Supreme Court to Review Trump's Federalization of National Guard in Chicago, Nationwide Implications

| Importance: 10/10

On October 29, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court took the rare step of requesting additional briefing in a high-profile emergency case challenging President Trump’s federalization of the National Guard in Chicago for immigration enforcement, signaling the Court is grappling with fundamental …

April Perry Donald Trump JB Pritzker Supreme Court chicago constitutional-crisis federalism federalization militarization +5 more
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DOJ Loosens Requirements to Deploy ~600 Military JAG Officers as Immigration Judges

| Importance: 8/10

The Department of Justice loosened qualification requirements to allow ‘any lawyer’—including approximately 600 military Judge Advocate General (JAG) officers—to serve as immigration judges, bypassing the traditional judicial independence standards and specialized training required for …

Department of Justice Trump Military institutional-capture judicial-independence immigration-policy militarization due-process
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2,300 Armed National Guard Troops Deploy in Washington DC Carrying M17 Pistols and M4 Rifles

| Importance: 9/10

Over 2,300 National Guard troops from West Virginia, South Carolina, Mississippi, Ohio, Louisiana, and Tennessee began patrolling Washington DC streets carrying M17 handguns and M4 semiautomatic rifles, marking an unprecedented militarization of the nation’s capital during peacetime. The armed …

Trump National Guard Department of Defense militarization posse-comitatus national-guard authoritarian-infrastructure civil-liberties
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Trump Federalizes DC Police and Deploys 800 National Guard Troops Despite Declining Crime

| Importance: 9/10

Trump announced federal takeover of Washington DC’s police department and deployment of 800 National Guard troops, invoking emergency powers under the Home Rule Act of 1973. DEA Administrator Terry Cole was designated interim federal commissioner. Attorney General Pam Bondi assumed command …

Donald Trump Pam Bondi Terry Cole DC Metropolitan Police Muriel Bowser institutional-capture weaponization militarization
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National Association of Manufacturers Establishes Defense Committee and Hires First Full-Time President

| Importance: 8/10

The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) board selects Werner P. Gullander as the organization’s first full-time permanent president by 1962, following a late 1950s organizational restructuring where declining membership resulted in a takeover by larger corporations that purged …

National Association of Manufacturers Werner P. Gullander National Defense Committee nam military-industrial-complex defense-contractors corporate-lobbying militarization
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Operation Wetback Mass Deportation Uses Military Tactics, Human Rights Violations

| Importance: 8/10

U.S. Attorney General Herbert Brownell launches Operation Wetback, a mass deportation initiative using military-style tactics to remove Mexican immigrants. Created by Joseph May Swing, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant general heading the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the operation targets …

Dwight D. Eisenhower Joseph May Swing Herbert Brownell Immigration and Naturalization Service immigration-policy mass-deportation human-rights-violations militarization racial-profiling
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