SUNLAND PARK, N.M. – Pete Hegseth’s motorcade stirred a cloud of dust around dozens of troops and border agents waiting in the desert to greet the new defense secretary.
It was his first visit to the U.S-Mexico border, and the 30-foot-tall steel border fence loomed behind him as he shook hands. The symbolic moment was a show of force by the new Trump administration and a made-for-media opportunity to show active-duty troops and Border Patrol agents working together.
“We have defended other places and other spaces. We will defend this line,” said Hegseth, an Army veteran, gesturing to the border fence behind him. Hegseth was joined by newly appointed border czar Tom Homan, a 40-year veteran of U.S. immigration enforcement.
President Donald Trump, in one of his first acts, declared a national border emergency, directing the military to assist the Department of Homeland Security in securing the border. Trump followed by deploying more than 1,500 active-duty soldiers and Marines to the border, adding to the force of 2,500 troops already stationed there.
He also directed the defense and homeland security secretaries to deliver a joint report about conditions at the southern border and a recommendation about whether he should invoke the Insurrection Act.
The act grants the president powers to use the military for civilian law enforcement, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. Invoking the act would allow soldiers to arrest migrants – something soldiers are now forbidden from doing.
“What they do is relieve Border Patrol,” Hegseth said. “They’re calling in observation to Border Patrol, who then interdict,” apprehending migrants or intercepting drug shipments.
The massing of combat forces, whose actions are limited to supporting roles under current law, comes amid record-low illegal crossings.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported about 1,000 migrant encounters borderwide a day in early January at the end of the Biden administration, down about 75% from the previous year.
Sunland Park, a quiet bedroom community east of sprawling El Paso, Texas, was the busiest spot in Border Patrol’s El Paso Sector for years. The sector includes part of West Texas and all of New Mexico.
But after former President Joe Biden tightened border controls and Trump deployed troops during his first days in office, including 400 soldiers to El Paso Sector, illegal migration has dropped off dramatically. From about 2,200 to 2,700 migrant encounters a day two years ago, encounters have fallen to below 150 a day in El Paso Sector, according to a spokesman.
On the desert mesa overlooking the U.S.-Mexico border, soldiers showed Hegseth a “sand table” where they mapped the local terrain using stones, water bottles and a plastic fork as landmarks.Local Border Patrol agents know the terrain by memory, but many of the dozens of soldiers at the site are from somewhere else. Down below the high mesa, a freight train blew its horn.
Over the years, active-duty troops have helped build barriers at the border, conduct surveillance and provide transportation under Republican and Democratic administrations alike. But visits by defense secretaries are uncommon. In 2018, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis visited troops at the border as the Trump administration considered another troop buildup there.
On Jan. 28, the Pentagon directed officials with the 10th Mountain Division, one of the Army’s quick-to-deploy combat formations, to plan for operations on the border.
“I’ve never seen this amount of engagement from the military on the border,” Homan told reporters Monday.
More:Why is Trump sending military to the border? What to know about his executive orders.
Democratic opponents of the deployment, including Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin, a member of the Armed Services Committee, predicted problems with the deployment in a hearing recently because active-duty troops lack the training for law enforcement duties.
“They’re not properly trained,” Slotkin said. “There’s going to be an incident. Someone’s going to get hurt.”
The massing of force along the 2,000-mile border comes during a testy time in the U.S.-Mexico relationship. Earlier Monday, in an 11th-hour agreement, Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo and Trump reached a deal to hold off on tariffs for one month. Trump had set a 25% tariff on Mexican goods, set to take effect Tuesday.
Sheinbaum Pardo promised to deploy 10,000 of her own National Guard troops to its northern border, and Trump agreed to work on reducing the flow of weapons sold in the U.S. to criminal organizations operating south of the border.
But Hegseth – who doesn’t have the authority to command troops to cross the border into Mexico – didn’t rule out the Trump administration using the U.S. military in Mexico.
Asked whether the Defense Department has any plans for troops stationed along the border to enter Mexico, Hegseth responded that “all options are on the table.”
“But we would be silly to forecast anything we’re going to do right now,” he told reporters. “Our mission is to set in a defense and not allow illegal immigration into our country.”
Lauren Villagran can be reached at [email protected].
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