Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has ordered an active-duty Stryker Brigade Combat Team and an aviation battalion to deploy to the U.S. southern border in order to reinforce border security.
On March 1, Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell announced that President Donald Trump and Hegseth had agreed to the deployment.
“As directed by President Trump, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has ordered the deployment of a Stryker Brigade Combat Team (SBCT) and General Support Aviation Battalion to reinforce and expand current border security operations to seal the border and protect the territorial integrity of the United States, a priority for the President,” Parnell explained in the statement.
“These forces will arrive in the coming weeks and their deployment underscores the Department’s unwavering dedication to working alongside the Department of Homeland Security to secure our southern border and maintain the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and security of the United States under President Trump’s leadership,” he added.
According to U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM), roughly 2,400 soldiers total will be sent from Fort Carson, Colorado, to the southern border from elements of the 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division. It is unclear as of the evening of March 3 where exactly these soldiers would be deploying to, though they have confirmed that they will be helping augment units already stationed at the border.
According to Breitbart News, “Soldiers from the Stryker brigade — which is built around the Stryker, an eight-wheeled armored fighting vehicle — will conduct detection and monitoring; administrative support; transportation support; warehousing and logistic support; vehicle maintenance; and engineering support. They will not conduct or be involved in interdiction or deportation operations.”
The last time that the Stryker Brigade was deployed to the southern border was in 2012 under the Obama administration.
In a statement, NORTHCOM Commander Gen. Gregory Guillot explained that the “deployments will bring additional agility and capability to further efforts to stop the flow of illegal migrancy and drugs at the southern border.”
With this new deployment, the total number of active-duty soldiers deployed to the southern border will be roughly 9,000.
Time to Crush Judicial Overreach and Secure Our Elections
Enough is enough—our justice system’s relentless meddling must stop shredding lawmakers’ efforts to pass ironclad voter ID laws and election security measures that safeguard our republic.
Arizona’s legislature is trapped in a maddening tug-of-war, with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals once again torching their common-sense voter ID laws on Tuesday, upholding a 2023 district court ruling that branded two 2022 Republican-backed provisions “unlawful voter suppression.” These laws—one barring unverified citizens from voting for president, the other from voting by mail—were struck down despite similar Voter ID policies standing tall in Alabama, Ohio, and Texas. Republicans vow to appeal, and they should, because this isn’t justice—it’s sabotage. Elected lawmakers craft laws; courts enforce them, not rewrite them to appease open-borders attorney activists, who crow about “democracy without barriers” while ignoring the chaos of unsecured elections.
To these radicals, “democracy” means a lawless free-for-all where fraud runs rampant. Arizona, home to an estimated 500,000 illegal immigrants—many drawing financial aid—sees 80–90% of its ballots cast by mail, a gaping wound for unverifiable votes, widened by a corrupt court system that overrides the people’s will. Look at California, where Governor Gavin “Nuisance” Newsom and his Democrat cronies banned voter ID outright last year, stomping on counties and charter cities daring to protect their elections. This isn’t governance—it’s a partisan hack job, and it’s killing our electoral integrity.
The stakes couldn’t be higher. Last year, we muscled through the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, led by Rep. Chip Roy, mandating proof of citizenship for voter registration. It’s a start—noncitizen voting is already illegal—but without uniform enforcement, it’s a paper tiger that’s being abused nationwide. Only three states—Alabama, Ohio, and Texas—have robust voter ID laws to block illegal voting.
Arizona’s latest smackdown in the courts screams that state-by-state scraps against rogue judges twisting the HAVA Act are a losing game—we’re bleeding out while radicals cheer. Worse, we can’t let more states ape California’s reckless voter ID ban, flinging open the polls to illegals and torching election integrity in a shameless power grab.
We need a federal sledgehammer: a nationwide voter ID mandate for all elections—federal, state, and local. Purge noncitizens from voter rolls or ditch the rolls entirely. Mail-in ballots must bear voter ID on the ballot itself—not just the envelope—for audit-proof integrity. Every ID must ping a federal database to stop duplicate voting across districts and states.
This isn’t about barriers—it’s about survival. Courts and “no borders” hacks fighting for “open” elections are rigging the system, not saving it. Now’s the moment to end the confusion, crush the interference, and lock down our elections with voter ID laws so clear no judge can twist them. Our democracy demands it—because without security, it’s no democracy at all.
What do you think of when you think of Mardi Gras? Colorful costumes, spectacular parades, elegant pageants and masquerade balls are what might come to mind. People dancing in the streets of New Orleans going wild are all a part of this joyful celebration. However, it is very much known as a party holiday filled with liquor, gluttony and sin. It promotes those who observe it to let go of their inhibitions and enjoy these fleshly desires. So is it something that Christians should celebrate?
History of Mardi Gras
Mardi Gras, also known as Carnival in many countries, is a time of unrestrained fun, in which observers indulge in many desires. Mardi Gras was celebrated in Roman Catholic communities in Europe and Latin America before it grew in America. Though the term refers to one specific day, Mardi Gras is not a single-day celebration. Starting in January, festivities occur daily. It goes until the final Mari Gras celebration the day before Lend, the 40-day period between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday. Mardi Gras is considered to be the last day for indulging in the pleasures of the flesh before Lent begins. In fact, the word Carnival means “farewell to the flesh,” and comes from the Latin words carnis (“flesh”) and vale (“farewell”).
Surprisingly, Mardi Gras long predates Christianity. The earlier record of the even comes from ancient times when tribes celebrated a fertility festival that welcomed the arrival of spring and a a time of renewal of life. The Romans called this pagan festival Lupercalia in honor of “Lupercus,” the Roman god of fertility. Lupercalia was a party full of merrymaking held each February in Rome, after which participants fasted for 40 days. Similar to modern celebrations, the Romans wore masks, dressed in costumes and indulged in fleshly desires.
As pagans converted to Catholicism, they did not want to give up this popular celebration. Church leaders quickly realized that they couldn’t pull their new members away from the holiday, so instead decided to “Christianize” the festival. Carnival was created as a time of celebration immediately preceding their pagan 40-day fast, which the church named “Lent.” From there, Mardi Gras developed into the elaborate affair it is today during the 19th and 20th centuries.
What Scriptures Says
The real question is what does God have to say about such matters, or does He care if Christians celebrate? Scripture tells us specifically what isn’t ok about these holidays. The Bible says in Deuteronomy 12:29-31 and 18:9-14 not to adopt practices steeped in paganism. Though the holiday was “Christianized” it is still rooted in ancient pagan practices. Any festival or religious observes of pagan origins is unacceptable to Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 10:1-4).
In addition, the holiday originally celebrated pagan gods. Many of the parades celebrate and honor false gods such as Bacchus and Venus. John 4:1 states “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.” Furthermore, in discussing false worship the Bible calls the sight of a women weeping for Tammuz (god of food and vegetation) an abomination, and reveals god’s anger about the celebrations for him (Ezekiel 8:13-18). Acknowledging these false gods in the celebrations, even if you don’t feel like you are specifically praising them, goes directly against what God asks of His children.
God wants us to hate sin, put it away and truly repent. Mardi Gras promotes an enjoy-sin-now, repent-later attitude that is the opposite of true repentance. It is hypocritical for anyone who claims to seek or serve the true God to participate in a festival that originates from paganism and promotes immoral behavior. God wants us to constantly be trying to live our lives in His image, which means avoiding sin at all costs. Mardi Gras cannot be considered harmless fun, when we are actively sinning. God does not allow us to throw away our restraints and indulge in these “works of flesh” that include drunkenness, public nudity, illicit sex, brawling and revelry (Galatians 5:19-21). Because it’s a holiday does not excuse it from God’s rules.
God wants Christians to worship Him. He wants us to celebrate, but He wants us to do it correctly—the way He has instructed us to. We are to be joyous and festive on religious days, but we are to do it on days He has designated. God did not create Mardi Gras for Christians, and with so many sinful ties to the holiday it is highly advised we don’t endorse it. Not only should Christians not participate in evil, God commands them to avoid even the appearance of evil (1 Thessalonians 5:22).
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