Defense and security articles
Get unbiased data and visuals on military recruitment, veterans, border security, and foreign affairs.
Who are the nation’s veterans?
The population of living veterans in the US — nearly 16 million people — is both shrinking in size and growing more diverse. What is a veteran, and who is considered one? Title 38 of the United States Code defines a veteran as “a person who served in the active military, naval, or air service, and who was discharged or released therefrom under conditions other than dishonorable.” The code also outlines who qualifies for veteran status beyond active duty to include service members such as reservists, members of the National Guard, cadets and midshipmen at military academies, commissioned officers outside the Armed Forces, and those in training for military service. The Department of Veteran Affairs is responsible for determining veteran status and maintaining veteran benefit eligibility. What is a protected veteran? The Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974 prohibits discrimination against certain veterans. Protected veterans meet the Title 38 qualifications but are afforded additional consideration due to disability, recent discharge, participation in wartime, or service recognition.
Apr 14, 2025How much fentanyl is seized at US borders each month?
About 720 pounds in May 2025. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid used medically as a pain reliever but is also trafficked illegally due to its potency. In 2023, the latest data available, fentanyl was involved in 69% of fatal accidental drug overdoses in the US.
Updates monthlyWhat is ICE and what does it do?
Since 2003, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) division of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been responsible for enforcing federal laws governing customs, trade, and immigration. ICE was created by the Homeland Security Act of 2002, which was passed after 9/11. This act created the DHS and reorganized existing agencies, merging the US Customs Service (formerly under the Treasury Department) and the Immigration and Naturalization Service (formerly under the Justice Department) to form ICE. ICE’s mission is to preserve American security and public safety, mainly within US borders, by enforcing immigration laws. This primarily involves detaining, deporting, and convicting unauthorized immigrants. It also assists international investigations into criminal organizations and terrorist networks that threaten or seek to exploit US customs and immigration laws. It operates with a staff of over 20,000 across 400+ global offices and an annual budget of around $8 billion.
Mar 21, 2025How many people are deported from the US each year?
1.1M in 2023. The Department of Homeland Security defines deportation as the removal or return of a noncitizen from the United States. However, a broader term can be used, “repatriation”, which also includes COVID-19 related expulsions from the US.
How many troops are in the US military?
About 2.1 million in June 2024. This includes 1.3 million active duty troops and 762,000 reserve troops. This includes active duty troops or full-time training duty in the reserves. Reserve troops are withheld from initial action to be deployed at a later time and are subject to call to active duty.
How much does the US spend on defense?
About $820 billion in fiscal year 2023. Defense spending includes personnel compensation, equipment, research and development (R&D), and the costs associated with operating and maintaining military efforts. The Department of Defense is responsible for most spending on national defense, along with other agencies like the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice.
How many people apprehended at US borders have a prior criminal conviction?
About 17,000 in fiscal year (FY) 2024. This number of criminal noncitizen arrests — now referred to by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) as criminal alien arrests — represents 1.1% of all border apprehensions by the US Border Patrol (USBP) through September 2024, the end of the federal fiscal year. Because one person may be arrested multiple times in the same fiscal year, it’s possible to have more arrests than people arrested.
How many unauthorized immigrants are in the US?
An estimated 11 million in 2022. The unauthorized immigrant population consists of all foreign-born noncitizens who are not legal US residents. This includes people who entered the country undetected, those who requested asylum after entry, and those who sought asylum at the border. It also encompasses people from conflict zones, such as Ukraine, and those who have overstayed their temporary visas.
What does the Department of Defense do?
The Department of Defense (DOD) is cabinet-level executive branch agency tasked with maintaining and overseeing the military forces of the United States. Its primary functions include overseeing the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Space Force; creating military policies; and managing the defense budget. It was established in 1947.
Updates annuallyWhat does the Department of Veterans Affairs do?
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a cabinet-level executive branch agency responsible for providing healthcare services, benefits programs, and access to national cemeteries for the nation's veterans and their dependents. It was established as the Veterans Administration in 1930 and elevated to cabinet status in 1989.
Updates annuallyWhat does USAID do?
USAID (US Agency for International Development) is an independent executive branch agency responsible for administering foreign aid and economic development assistance outside the US. Its functions include supporting economic growth, global health, and education; providing humanitarian aid in response to crises; and advancing US foreign policy goals through partnerships. It was established in 1961 as part of the Foreign Assistance Act.
Updates annuallyHow is the standard of living changing for veterans?
Veterans’ standard of living in 2023 was slightly better than the average American when measured by higher median incomes, lower unemployment rates, and a reduced likelihood of poverty.How many veterans are unemployed?In 2023, 2.8% of veterans — around 241,000 people — were unemployed, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The veteran population had a lower unemployment rate than non-veterans (3.6%). Of all Americans, veteran and not, younger people tend to have the highest unemployment rate. This is true for veterans aged 18 to 24, whose unemployment rate of 7.8% is more than double the general veteran average. Veterans with a service-related disability also had a higher unemployment rate; it stood at 6.0% as of August 2023.
Jan 6, 2025How much does the VA spend?
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is the fifth-largest spender among federal agencies, accounting for 3.5% of federal spending in fiscal year (FY) 2023. Adjusting for inflation, VA expenditures increased nearly 70% over the last decade, from $180 billion in FY 2013 to $301 billion in FY 2023.
Aug 22, 2024Border recidivism: How common are repeat illegal border crossings?
Immigration remains a hot-button issue in the United States, with border recidivism being a key aspect of policy debates. Recidivism has risen in recent years, and reports cite Title 42’s lack of penalties for illegal reentry as a reason for the trend.What is border recidivism?Border recidivism is the rate at which people try to reenter the US illegally within one year of being caught and sent back to their home country.The word “recidivism” is often used to describe how likely a formerly incarcerated person is to re-offend. The same concept applies to border recidivism, which the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) defines as the percentage of people apprehended by the US Border Patrol more than once within a fiscal year (which begin on October 1 and end on September 30 of the following year) for attempting to enter the US illegally.It’s worth noting that an apprehension is not the same as an arrest. Apprehension is when Border Patrol detains someone who is unlawfully in the US. It may or may not lead to an arrest, according to the CBP’s definition.Why does the government track border recidivism?The federal government uses the border recidivism rate to measure how effective the Border Patrol is at preventing illegal immigration, according to a report from the US Government Accountability Office (GAO). However, the measure has some limitations.According to the GAO and the US Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General, the border recidivism rate does not account for a person’s apprehension history over multiple fiscal years, nor does it consider individuals who have been apprehended but have no record of removal, which can lead to an underestimation of recidivism.
Aug 1, 2024How does the government support veterans?
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) spent over $266 billion in fiscal year 2022 — accounting for about 4.3% of all federal spending — on pay and pensions, healthcare, and education for the nation’s veterans.How does the Department of Veterans Affairs spend its budget?The majority of VA expenditures fund veterans’ compensation and pensions (50.5% of VA spending) and medical care services (38.9%).A veteran’s eligibility for pensions and compensation depends on factors such as their age, service, and disability status. More than 5.9 million veterans and their families received financial support from the disability compensation program in 2022, one of the VA’s most-accessed programs.The VA also provides veterans with free healthcare for conditions related to military service, for catastrophic disabilities, and for veterans with a disability rating of at least 50%. (The VA assigns veterans a numerical rating based on the severity of their service-connected disability; this rating determines their’ eligibility for benefits and the amount of their compensation.) The department also provides financial assistance to veterans who can’t afford to pay for healthcare. In 2022, the VA spent $104 billion on veterans’ medical care.Spending per patient varies depending on the veterans’ priority group, which triages patients based on the severity of their disability or medical condition and whether the condition is related to their service.
Aug 1, 2024How much does the US spend on the military?
In 2023, the US military spent approximately $820.3 billion, or roughly 13.3% of the entire federal budget for that fiscal year. In March 2023, the Department of Defense (DoD) requested $842.0 billion for 2024 — a 2.6% increase.With the world’s third-largest military, at nearly 1.3 million active-duty troops, the US estimates it spends more than any other nation on its national defense. Between 2014 and 2022, the US spent more than twice as much on defense as did all other NATO members, 30 nations in total.According to the 2022 National Defense Strategy, US military priorities include countering China’s military presence in the Indo-Pacific; deterring strategic attacks against the US and allies; defending against evolving threats like cyberattacks and addressing aggression from Russia, Iran, and North Korea.
Aug 1, 2024Statistics on unauthorized US immigration and US border crossings by year
Border officials encountered 11 million unauthorized migrants attempting to enter the US between October 2019 and June 2024.Data on these border encounters — which include people attempting to enter the country or apprehended trying to cross the border without inspection — helps the government estimate the number of individuals illegally entering the US.By understanding the demographics and origins of people encountered at the border, policymakers can better understand the complex factors driving immigration and make informed policy decisions.What is a border encounter?The Department of Homeland Security separates border encounters into three categories:Apprehensions are people temporarily detained by the US Border Patrol (USBP) for crossing the border illegally between ports of entry. They may or may not be arrested under Title 8 and can file for asylee status.Inadmissibles are people seeking legal admission at official ports of entry who are found ineligible by officers of the Office of Field Operations (OFO) under Title 8. This category also includes people seeking humanitarian protection and people who voluntarily withdraw their admission application; they can also file for asylee status.Expulsions are migrants denied exclusively through Title 42 to stop the spread of COVID-19. This status only applied from March 2020 to May 2023. USBP or OFO officers were empowered to expel people and return them to their home country or last non-US location. These individuals were not given the opportunity to apply for asylum.These encounters don't necessarily reflect the actual number of people trying to cross the border; some people make multiple crossings during the same fiscal year, meaning they’d appear more than once in the data, and others successfully enter without encountering any US official.
Aug 1, 2024How much does the US spend on the Space Force?
On December 20, 2019, the United States Space Force (USSF) became the sixth branch of the US military with the passing of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020. It was the first new branch since the US Air Force was established in 1947.Nine months later, on September 1, 2020, the Space Force inducted its first class of deployed Guardians, as they are called. Twenty members of the US Air Force trained in space operations and other core space career fields transferred to the new branch, making them the first Space Force members engaged in support of combat operations.What does the Space Force do?Housed within the Air Force, Space Force operates as its own department with its own duties. They are: to protect the interests of the United States in space; to deter aggression in, from, and to space; and to conduct space operations in service of America’s national security.Just as the US Navy protects the country at sea, space is its own domain. This includes civilian, commercial, and military activity — think civilian space travel and exploration, commercial satellite technology, and cyber warfare. The Space Force is charged with protecting and defending American military capabilities and economic interests in the space realm.The Space Force is differentiated from NASA, which is the United States’ civilian space agency. NASA astronauts and scientists are dedicated to space exploration and scientific discovery. There is crossover between the military and NASA, however. Many NASA employees are veterans. For example, NASA’s first class of astronauts, the Mercury 7, were all military test pilots.Where does the Space Force spend its budget?The five-year plan for establishing the Space Force includes creating a headquarters within the Pentagon (fiscal year 2020), transferring select missions and units to the USSF (FY 2021–2022), and eventually developing new ways to organize, train, and equip its forces (2023–2024).In 2020, funding went towards the operation to establish its headquarters. This ramp up period allowed the USSF to establish the necessary “policies, procedures, and systems to operate.”In 2021, funding expanded with the transfer of missions, forces, and programs that had been planned to begin one year after its establishment. This year’s budget included procurement as well as research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E), which constituted 67% of the total budget proposal. The 2024 budget request is similarly allocated with 64% of the Space Force budget covering RDT&E.Since the Defense Department has identified China and Russia as looming threats to US space capabilities, the department plans to focus next year’s efforts on building “resilient, ready, combat-credible space forces” by “accelerating the pivot towards resilient satellite constellations, ground stations, networks and data links,” Saltzman said.The Space Force budget continues to increase. In 2020, it received $40 million for establishing operations. In 2021, as the branch became fully operational, it received $15.4 billion in total funding. Two years later, this amount was nearly doubled at $26.3 billion.
Aug 1, 2024How many people die crossing the US-Mexico border?
Since 1998, at least 8,000 undocumented migrants have died attempting to cross the border from Mexico to the US. Their journey often involves traveling through desert areas where there’s few sources of water, steep rocky terrain, and temperatures reaching 118°F during the summer.Extreme heat, drownings, and falls are some of the frequent causes of death for those trying to cross.
Aug 1, 2024An overview of the US–Mexico border
The United States and Mexico share a nearly 2,000-mile land border. Along the way, the American states of California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas abut the Mexican states of Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, and Tamaulipas.How long is the US–Mexico border?The 1,954-miles-long border between the US and Mexico includes 18 miles of maritime boundary on the Pacific Coast and 12 miles extending into the Gulf of Mexico.The Rio Grande, which flows into the Gulf of Mexico, divides the nations for 1,255 miles. The remaining distance includes a stretch of land from El Paso, Texas, on the east to the southwestern tip of Arizona, where the border follows the Colorado River 24 miles north. There, it meets and follows the southern border of California to the Pacific Ocean.Where do people live on the border?The Department of Health and Human Services estimates that the US–Mexico border region, which extends 62.5 miles north and south from the border, is home to around 15 million people. More than 1 million live in 15 groups of sister cities established over decades of binational relations to coordinate emergency response plans.The largest US cities on the border are San Diego, California; El Paso, Texas; and Laredo, Texas.
Jul 30, 2024