Mexico began deploying the 10,000 troops it promised to send to its border with the United States on Wednesday, its two largest deployment sites reported to be near Ciudad Juárez and Tijuana.
National Guardsmen and soldiers have been reported arriving near Ciudad Juárez, across the border from El Paso, Texas. Roughly 1,600 troops are expected to patrol that area, according to The Associated Press news agency.
🔴 Buscan túneles que utilizan para la migración ilegal y el tráfico de armas entre México y EU promocionados en TikTok https://t.co/Jgx6MvIRaC
— El Universal (@El_Universal_Mx) February 6, 2025
Guardsmen also took part in a joint Mexico-U.S. operation in Ciudad Juárez, searching for clandestine smuggling tunnels dug by criminal groups.
Masked and armed Guardsmen scoured the brush along the border fence, collecting makeshift ladders and ropes tucked away in the trenches, the AP reported.
The Mexican government said another 1,950 troops were to be on patrol in and around Tijuana, across from San Diego, California. The AP reported that troops were seen climbing off government planes in Tijuana on Tuesday and they began walking the border on Wednesday.
“There will be permanent surveillance on the border,” National Guard leader José Luis Santos Iza told reporters as the first set of soldiers arrived. “This operation is primarily to prevent drug trafficking from Mexico to the United States, mainly fentanyl.”
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum agreed to deploy troops to its northern border on Monday, an arrangement that prompted U.S. President Donald Trump to postpone the application of tariffs on imports.
Upon taking office on Jan. 20, Trump had declared an emergency at the Mexico-U.S. border and was set to impose a 25% tax on Mexican imports in response to the undocumented migrants from around the world and drugs entering the U.S. via Mexico.
In addition to increasing its border security, Sheinbaum has asked the U.S. to do more to stop American guns from being trafficked into Mexico to criminal organizations.
The Mexican president said on Tuesday that the troop deployment will not result in security issues elsewhere in the country.
“Be assured that we are in no way leaving other states vulnerable,” Sheinbaum said at daily press conference Tuesday. “This is simply a reorientation of our forces.”
Sheinbaum has more than 280,000 military troops to handle matters of public security, including drug trafficking and illegal migration, according to the newspaper USA Today.
With more than 9,000 Army and National Guard troops already stationed at the northern border last year, the new deployment required a shift of only 3.5% of remaining troops.
The National Guard’s “mission is fluid,” said Samuel Storr, a researcher with the Iberoamericana University’s Citizen Security Program in Mexico City. “It gives the government the leeway to make these big announcements. It serves for a performative foreign policy.”
Foreign ministers confer
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke by telephone on Tuesday with Mexican Foreign Affairs Minister Juan Ramón de la Fuente to discuss concrete actions to secure the U.S.-Mexico border.
According to Rubio’s spokesperson Tammy Bruce, the pair discussed dismantling transnational criminal organizations, halting illegal migration and stemming the flow of fentanyl and precursor chemicals from China.
“Secretary Rubio thanked Mexico for sending 10,000 troops to our border,” Bruce said in a statement, adding that “Secretary Rubio and Foreign Secretary de la Fuente affirmed a mutual commitment to work together, as neighbors and partners.”
The newspaper El Universal reported on Thursday that military personnel would be deployed to at least 18 municipalities along Mexico’s northern border. Troops were to be sent to the states of Baja California (3,100 troops), Sonora (1,987), Chihuahua (2,620), Coahuila (1,017), Nuevo León (623) and Tamaulipas (743).
It is expected that National Guardsmen will also be stationed at six cities in the state of Sonora, across the border from the U.S. state of Arizona — San Luis Río Colorado, Nogales, Sonoyta, Naco, Agua Prieta and Sásabe.
El Universal reported that on Wednesday the troops were patrolling south of the Río Bravo in the region known as Valle de Juárez, southeast of Ciudad Juárez. Soldiers swept an area of approximately 35 kilometers, passing through the towns of San Isidro and San Agustín
Earlier, Mexican and U.S. authorities conducted a coordinated search for illegal tunnels in the Chamizal region of Ciudad Juárez.
El Universal reported that among the U.S. agencies taking part in the search were the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Customs and Border Protection Agency (CBP).
Mexican agencies involved in the operation were the Federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR), the National Guard, the Defense Ministry and the Chihuahua state Bureau of Investigation.
With reports from El Universal, USA Today and The Associated Press
