BRUSSELS (AP) — NATO on Wednesday launched a new military effort dubbed Arctic Sentry aimed at improving security in the High North, a month after U.S. President Donald Trump ramped up tensions in the alliance with his threats to annex Greenland.
Initially, Arctic Sentry will be the NATO label for national military exercises in the region, such as Denmark’s Arctic Endurance — which angered Trump so much that he threatened to slap tariffs on allies taking part — and Norway’s Cold Response drills.
Arctic Sentry is not a military operation. It does not involve the permanent or long-term deployment of troops to the region under a NATO banner.
“What is really new about it is that for the first time now we will bring everything we do in the Arctic together under one command,” NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte told reporters in Brussels. He said it would help the alliance to “assess which (security) gaps there are which we have to fill.”
“In the face of Russia’s increased military activity and China’s growing interest in the High North, it was crucial that we do more,” Rutte added.
Arctic security has been on NATO’s agenda in recent years — seven allies lie in the region, along with Russia — but pressure to act accelerated as Trump’s determination to “get” Greenland fueled tensions among the allies.
NATO’s role in this series of military activities, which will be coordinated through its U.S. headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia, is aimed at countering Russian and Chinese influence in the High North, which includes Greenland.
NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe, U.S. Air Force Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, said in a statement that “Arctic Sentry underscores the alliance’s commitment to safeguard its members and maintain stability in one of the world’s most strategically significant and environmentally challenging areas.”
As part of the effort, the United Kingdom has announced that the number of British troops deployed to Norway will double over three years from 1,000 to 2,000. Some will be involved in Exercise Lion Protector, already planned for September.
Details are sketchy, but other NATO activities will be added to Arctic Sentry once broader security needs are assessed and as the national military exercises end.
France, Germany and Denmark have said they will take part but have not said how many troops would be involved.
NATO’s primary role is to defend the territory of its 32 member states. The specter of the alliance’s most powerful country threatening to annex part of another ally, Denmark, has deeply shaken the rest of the alliance. Greenland is a semiautonomous territory in the Danish realm.
European allies hope that Arctic Sentry and ongoing talks between the Trump administration, Denmark and Greenland will allow NATO to move on from the dispute and focus on Europe's real security priority, Russia's war on Ukraine.
Greenland's Minister for Foreign Affairs Vivian Motzfeldt, left, Canada's Foreign Minister Anita Anand, and Danish Foreign Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen, right, meet in front of the newly opened Canadian consulate in Nuuk, Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026. (Ida Marie Odgaard/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
Federal immigration officials plan to spend $38.3 billion to boost detention capacity to 92,600 beds, a document released Friday shows, as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement quietly purchases warehouses to turn into detention and processing facilities.
Republican New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte posted the document online amid tension over ICE's plans to convert a warehouse in Merrimack into a 500-bed processing center.
It said ICE plans 16 regional processing centers with a population of 1,000 to 1,500 detainees, whose stays would average three to seven days. Another eight large-scale detention centers would be capable of housing 7,000 to 10,000 detainees for periods averaging less than 60 days.
The document also refers to the acquisition of 10 existing “turnkey” facilities.
Plans call for all of them to be up and running by November as immigration officials roll out a massive $45 billion expansion of detention facilities financed by President Donald Trump’s recent tax-cutting law.
More than 75,000 immigrants were being detained by ICE as of mid-January, up from 40,000 when Trump took office a year earlier, according to federal data released last week.
The newly released document refers to “non-traditional facilities” and comes as ICE has quietly bought at least seven warehouses — some larger than 1 million square feet (92,900 square meters) — in the past few weeks in Arizona, Georgia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Texas.
Warehouse purchases in six cities were scuttled when buyers decided not to sell under pressure from activists. Several other deals in places like New York are imminent, however.
City officials are frequently unable to get details from ICE until a property sale is finalized.
Tensions boiled to the surface after interim ICE Director Todd Lyons testified Thursday that the Department of Homeland Security “has worked with Gov. Ayotte” and provided her with an economic impact summary.
Ayotte said that assertion was “simply not true” and the summary was sent hours after Lyons testified.
The document mistakenly refers to the “ripple effects to the Oklahoma economy” and revenue generated by state sales and income taxes, neither of which exist in New Hampshire.
“Director Lyons’ comments today are another example of the troubling pattern of issues with this process,” Ayotte said. “Officials from the Department of Homeland Security continue to provide zero details of their plans for Merrimack, never mind providing any reports or surveys.”
DHS did not respond to questions about Ayotte's comments or the new document. But it previously confirmed that it was looking for more detention space, although it objected to calling the sites “warehouses,” saying in a statement that they would be “very well structured detention facilities meeting our regular detention standards.”
Associated Press writer Holly Ramer contributed.
A massive 826,780-square-foot warehouse sits illuminated Feb. 12, 2026, in the El Paso suburb of Socorro, Texas, that was recently purchased by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for $122.8 million. (ASP Photo/Morgan Lee)
FILE - John Miller, an organizer with One Circle Community Coalition, shows a variance request while speaking about plans to oppose converting a warehouse into an ICE detention facility Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026, at a community hall in Social Circle, Ga. (Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, File)
A massive 826,780-square-foot warehouse sits illuminated Feb. 12, 2026, in the El Paso suburb of Socorro, Texas, that was recently purchased by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for $122.8 million. (ASP Photo/Morgan Lee)
