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by Katya Schwenk
September 18, 2025
The $893 billion defense policy bill that passed the House of Representatives last week would grant the Department of Defense unprecedented new authority to deploy private military contractors to the United States’ southern border.
A provision in the legislation, tacked on in a July amendment, for the first time gives the Defense Secretary authority to outsource the agency’s work at the border, a proposal that critics warn could prove a bonanza for the shadowy mercenary and private security firms that work with the Pentagon, often with little public transparency.
The provision was drafted by a lawmaker who has received significant contributions from defense industry giants, including Lockheed Martin and RTX (formerly Raytheon).
For the moment, the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees both Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection, is the agency granted the authority to outsource border operations to private vendors, like the private security firms transporting immigrants around the country and the defense technology companies that sell border surveillance tech.
The new proposal could further expand the role of private contractors in border operations — this time under the watch of the Defense Department, which has a long history of wasteful, unaccountable spending on private vendors.
Already the use of private contractors by the Department of Homeland Security to run ICE’s deportation machine has invited scrutiny. The private firms profiting from ICE’s raids and sprawling detention system are often shadowy, offering little transparency to the public even as they are accused of misconduct and abuses.
Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, the director of government affairs at the federal watchdog group Project on Government Oversight called the provision “extremely dangerous.”
.
“It’s just another stream of money for companies,” said William Hartung, senior research fellow at the nonprofit Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, which analyzes defense policy and spending. Among the firms poised to benefit, he said, are Palantir and Anduril, two defense contractors that work closely with the Department of Homeland Security on border surveillance.
Other defense contractors like Boeing and Lockheed Martin already take in hundreds of billions from the Pentagon; the agency paid out an estimated $2.4 trillion to its private vendors between 2020 and 2024, more than half of its discretionary spending. The cash flow has, in turn, created a powerful lobby that is constantly looking to expand opportunities to drain the government’s coffers.
Fallon has received tens of thousands in campaign contributions from defense industry firms, including, just this year, thousands from RTX, Lockheed Martin, and General Dynamics, three of the Pentagon’s biggest vendors.
.
“It’s pretty novel,” said Hedtler-Gaudette of the Project on Government Oversight. The Pentagon has a long history of working with unaccountable defense contractors, particularly overseas, he explained. Now, this could be a situation of “Blackwater on the border,” he said, referencing a private military contractor accused of war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Elizabeth Goitein, the codirector of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, warned that if such a provision were enshrined into law, it might be difficult to roll back.
“Inviting private companies into border security efforts would create a powerful lobby for perpetuating this unprecedented and ever-expanding level of border militarization that we are seeing under this administration,” she said. This would make it “much harder to bring that level back down in the future.”
Other provisions in the House bill would also expand the Pentagon’s role in border operations, including one provision that would bolster the Department of Defense’s ability to collaborate with agencies like the Department of Homeland Security on “counterterrorism” operations, further entrenching the military in domestic law enforcement operations.
Full article:
by Katya Schwenk
September 18, 2025
The $893 billion defense policy bill that passed the House of Representatives last week would grant the Department of Defense unprecedented new authority to deploy private military contractors to the United States’ southern border.
A provision in the legislation, tacked on in a July amendment, for the first time gives the Defense Secretary authority to outsource the agency’s work at the border, a proposal that critics warn could prove a bonanza for the shadowy mercenary and private security firms that work with the Pentagon, often with little public transparency.
The provision was drafted by a lawmaker who has received significant contributions from defense industry giants, including Lockheed Martin and RTX (formerly Raytheon).
For the moment, the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees both Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection, is the agency granted the authority to outsource border operations to private vendors, like the private security firms transporting immigrants around the country and the defense technology companies that sell border surveillance tech.
The new proposal could further expand the role of private contractors in border operations — this time under the watch of the Defense Department, which has a long history of wasteful, unaccountable spending on private vendors.
Already the use of private contractors by the Department of Homeland Security to run ICE’s deportation machine has invited scrutiny. The private firms profiting from ICE’s raids and sprawling detention system are often shadowy, offering little transparency to the public even as they are accused of misconduct and abuses.
Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, the director of government affairs at the federal watchdog group Project on Government Oversight called the provision “extremely dangerous.”
.
“It’s just another stream of money for companies,” said William Hartung, senior research fellow at the nonprofit Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, which analyzes defense policy and spending. Among the firms poised to benefit, he said, are Palantir and Anduril, two defense contractors that work closely with the Department of Homeland Security on border surveillance.
Other defense contractors like Boeing and Lockheed Martin already take in hundreds of billions from the Pentagon; the agency paid out an estimated $2.4 trillion to its private vendors between 2020 and 2024, more than half of its discretionary spending. The cash flow has, in turn, created a powerful lobby that is constantly looking to expand opportunities to drain the government’s coffers.
Fallon has received tens of thousands in campaign contributions from defense industry firms, including, just this year, thousands from RTX, Lockheed Martin, and General Dynamics, three of the Pentagon’s biggest vendors.
.
“It’s pretty novel,” said Hedtler-Gaudette of the Project on Government Oversight. The Pentagon has a long history of working with unaccountable defense contractors, particularly overseas, he explained. Now, this could be a situation of “Blackwater on the border,” he said, referencing a private military contractor accused of war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Elizabeth Goitein, the codirector of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, warned that if such a provision were enshrined into law, it might be difficult to roll back.
“Inviting private companies into border security efforts would create a powerful lobby for perpetuating this unprecedented and ever-expanding level of border militarization that we are seeing under this administration,” she said. This would make it “much harder to bring that level back down in the future.”
Other provisions in the House bill would also expand the Pentagon’s role in border operations, including one provision that would bolster the Department of Defense’s ability to collaborate with agencies like the Department of Homeland Security on “counterterrorism” operations, further entrenching the military in domestic law enforcement operations.
Full article:
