Mexican soldiers deploy along US-Mexico border near Juárez after Trump's tariff threat

USA Today

06-02-2025

Mexican soldiers deploy along US-Mexico border near Juárez after Trump's tariff threat
CIUDAD JUÁREZ, Mexico — Mexican soldiers and National Guard troops have started deploying to the U.S.-Mexico border.
The caravan of white National Guard vehicles set out to the border in the early afternoon Wednesday, Feb. 5, kicking up dust as they sped off from the National Guard Vocational Training Academy in Juárez, which sits just across the Cuatro Siglos boulevard from the border wall.
Masked soldiers, armed and in combat gear, sat in the backs of the transports as they sped, lights flashing, through the afternoon traffic.
The units set out for hot spots along the border where criminal groups regularly move drugs and people across the border.
The troops are being deployed as part of the Operation Northern Border, a bi-national agreement with the United States that looks to crackdown on smuggling networks along the border.
The roughly 120 troops are the first of 10,000 troops that are to be deployed to contain the trafficking of migrants, illegal drugs like fentanyl, and weapons from the United States.
They began to arrive in Juárez on a military flight from Mérida, Mexico, on Tuesday, Feb. 3. Other elements of the Mexican military and National Guard will be arriving in the coming days.
More: Devastation, dismay overcomes migrants waiting in Juarez to seek asylum in US
Why are troops here?
The deployment of Mexican troops to the U.S.-Mexico border is part of an agreement between Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and President Donald Trump to delay the implementation of tariffs on Mexico.
President Trump had ordered the tariffs to be implemented on Canada and Mexico over accusations of failing to address migration and drug trafficking.
The 25% tariff on Mexican goods was delayed for 30 days under the condition that Mexico address the flow of migrants and illicit drugs into the United States. The U.S. also agreed to address the illegal trafficking of guns into Mexico.
"The fentanyl crisis in the United States, they obviously have to do their part in the United States," Sheinbaum said during her morning press conference on Tuesday, Feb. 3.
More: Trump's military deportation flights cost more, carry fewer migrants
How many soldiers will be deployed?
Mexico announced that 10,000 soldiers and National Guard troops will be deployed in 18 cities in the six states that share a border with the United States.
Most troops are being deployed to Baja California and Chihuahua, with both border states receiving 3,010 and 2,620 soldiers. Juárez is set to receive 1,650 soldiers.
Mexican military expert Alexei Chavez estimates it could take a week for all 10,000 troops to be deployed to the border.
Have National Guard troops been deployed to border before?
The Mexican government has deployed National Guard troops in immigration operations since its formation in 2018 in the administration of Andrés Manuel López Obrador. They are currently deployed in immigration operations in both northern and southern Mexico.
Mexican troops have regularly been shifted to the border to address organized crime and insecurity.
Troops have recently been deployed to the border to address migration.
López Obrador deployed troops to the border to address mass migrant caravans in 2019 after then President Trump threatened Mexico with tariffs. Around 10,000 troops were moved to the U.S.-Mexico border in an agreement with the Biden administration in April 2021, according to the Associated Press.