Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect Fort Liberty’s name change back to Fort Bragg. The US Department of Defense issued the following statement on Monday:
While flying aboard a C-17 from Joint Base Andrews to Stuttgart on February 10, 2025, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth signed a memorandum renaming Fort Liberty in North Carolina to Fort Roland L. Bragg. The new name pays tribute to Pfc. Roland L. Bragg, a World War II hero who earned the Silver Star and Purple Heart for his exceptional courage during the Battle of the Bulge. This change underscores the installation’s legacy of recognizing those who have demonstrated extraordinary service and sacrifice for the nation.
Soldiers from the 18th Airborne Corps at Fort Bragg, previously Fort Liberty, are said to be among the nearly 1,500 active duty soldiers the Pentagon is set to deploy to the southern border to help with the suppression of illegal immigration.
A US official confirmed the report to the Associated Press on Friday, speaking on condition of anonymity because the deployment was not publicly announced.
That would eventually bring the total to about 3,600 active-duty troops at the border.
The official said a logistics brigade from the XVIII Airborne Corps would be sent.
At the end of January, defense officials confirmed to Military.com that the 82nd Airborne Division’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team out of Fort Bragg had been preparing for mobilization since the middle of January, as had elements with the Fort Drum, New York-based 10th Mountain Division.
Troops going to the border are expected to help put concertina wire barriers in place and provide needed transportation, intelligence, and other support to the US Border Patrol.
Securing the border had been a campaign promise of President Donald Trump, reiterated in his inauguration speech. On his first day in office, Trump declared a national emergency at the US southern border.
There will also be several hundred Marines stationed at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where some of the detained migrants will be held.
Problems from illegal migration have ranged from gangs like Tren de Aragua from Venezuela taking over an apartment complex in Aurora, Colorado, to the murder of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray of Texas by two Venezuela nationals to the overwhelming problem of drugs like fentanyl coming over the border.
According to a 2020 report from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the majority of the fentanyl that crosses the southern border into the United States originates from China. The report highlights that China remains the primary source of fentanyl, fentanyl-related substances, and fentanyl precursors , which are often smuggled through various routes before reaching the US.
“Nearly a hundred thousand lives are lost every year to opioid, first among them fentanyl,” US Sen. Thom Tillis, R-NC, said at a roundtable discussion with local elected officials and law enforcement in Wilmington in August on the opioid crisis. “We’ve got to figure out how to make headway. We’re losing ground.”
North Carolina ranks number 6 in total drug overdose deaths according to 2022 statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Wilmington City Councilman Luke Waddell said during the roundtable that his city’s overdose rate outpaces the national average.
“A lot of folks think what’s happening at the border doesn’t really affect us here in southeast North Carolina,” said Waddell who serves on the joint city, county Opioid Settlement Committee. “But the sheer numbers of opioid deaths that we have in New Hanover County are three times the national average, so it certainly is affecting.”