Mexico has begun to deploy 10,000 military troops to its border with the United States as part of the country’s effort to deter illegal immigration and drug smuggling northbound.
Mexico has launched Operativo Frontera Norte, Spanish for “Operation Northern Border,” as part of an effort to bolster security along its northern cities and towns.
The move comes after weekend negotiations with the Trump administration. President Donald Trump demanded that Mexico crack down on the movement of fentanyl over the border or face 25% tariffs on goods sent to the U.S. from Mexico.
Mexican army soldiers and National Guard troops were deployed to Mexican border states Baja California, Sonora, and Tamaulipas on Tuesday, according to Mexican military officials who spoke with Reuters.
Within those regions, troops will be sent to Tijuana, across from San Diego, California; Mexicali, across from Calexico; Nogales, across from southeastern Arizona; Nuevo Laredo, across from Laredo, Texas; and Reynosa and Matamoros, which are across the border from the Rio Grande Valley of southeastern Texas.
Hundreds of soldiers were sent north, specifically to Ojinaga, across the border from Presidio in West Texas, and Puerto Palomas, near Columbus, New Mexico, reported Mexican news outlet La Verdad Juarez.
Mexico’s secretary of national defense posted a video on social media early Tuesday morning that showed troops being escorted north. Military cargo planes were loaded with soldiers, and rows of army trucks made their way down the street.
Trump, in return for the deployment, has promised to slow the flow of guns from the U.S. into Mexico, which transnational criminal organizations south of the border use in their cartel battles.
Although Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum agreed to Trump’s terms, she said the U.S. ought to do its part to crack down on the fentanyl epidemic.
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“The fentanyl crisis in the United States, they obviously have to do their part in the United States,” Sheinbaum said during a press conference in Mexico City on Tuesday.
The deployment of 10,000 Mexican troops is not without precedent. In 2021, Mexico agreed to the Biden administration’s request for the same number of troops and dispatched them to the border to slow the flow of illegal immigrants as the number of arrests by U.S. Border Patrol began to skyrocket.
