section_path: Legal issues/Military involvement
section_name: Military involvement
paragraph_text: Military involvement
  
  In 1995, the United States Congress considered an exemption from the Posse Comitatus Act, which generally prohibits direct participation of US soldiers and airmen (and sailors and marines by policy of the Department of the Navy) in domestic law enforcement activities, such as search, seizure, and arrests.
  
  In 1997, marines shot and killed 18-year-old US citizen Esequiel Hernández Jr while on a mission to interdict smuggling and illegal immigration near the border community of Redford, Texas. The marines observed the high school student from concealment while he was tending his family's goats in the vicinity of their ranch. At one point, Hernandez raised his.22-caliber rifle and fired shots in the direction of the concealed soldiers. He was subsequently tracked for 20 minutes then shot and killed. In reference to the incident, military lawyer Craig T. Trebilcock argues, "the fact that armed military troops were placed in a position with the mere possibility that they would have to use force to subdue civilian criminal activity reflects a significant policy shift by the executive branch away from the posse comitatus doctrine." The killing of Hernandez led to a congressional review and an end to a nine-year-old policy of the military aiding the Border Patrol.
  
  After the September 11 attacks in 2001, the United States again considered placing soldiers along the U.S.-Mexico Border as a security measure. In May 2006, President George W. Bush announced plans to use the National Guard to strengthen enforcement of the US–Mexico border from illegal immigrants, emphasizing that Guard units "will not be involved in direct law enforcement activities".
  
  The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) called on the President not to deploy troops to deter illegal immigrants, and stated that a "deployment of National Guard troops violates the spirit of the Posse Comitatus Act". According to the State of the Union address in January 2007, more than 6,000 National Guard members had been sent to the border to supplement the Border Patrol, costing in excess of $750 million.