Fact Check: Mexico also sent troops to border during Biden administration
Claim:
In 2021, during former U.S. President Joe Biden's administration, Mexico increased numbers of troops at its borders an effort to reduce migration.
Rating:
In early February 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump announced he was delaying imposing tariffs on Mexican goods for a month as part of an agreement with his Mexican counterpart to increase border enforcement. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said her government agreed to send 10,000 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border in an effort to prevent the trafficking of drugs, particularly fentanyl.
A number of posts on social media claimed former U.S. President Joe Biden had a similar deal to increase troops in 2021. One post stated: "Mexico agreed to maintain 10,000 troops at the US border. In 2021. Yep. Trump is taking credit for 10,000 troops that Biden got Mexico to put there four years ago. And Biden did it without any threats."
(Facebook user Oregon's Bay Area)
Mexico did agree to increase and maintain troops in an agreement with the Biden administration in 2021. However, we should note that under Trump's current agreement, an additional 10,000 Mexican troops are being sent to the U.S.-Mexico border to join the thousands already there. Furthermore, Mexico agreed to "maintain" 10,000 troops under Biden, adding more personnel to already existing border security. As such, we rate this claim as true.
We reached out to the Trump administration, and White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly confirmed the 10,000-troop increase was in addition to the Mexican troops already there. Asked how this agreement to increase troop levels was different from the previous administration's efforts, Kelly told us over email: "This deal will actually work."
In 2021, Biden's agreement with Mexico involved it maintaining 10,000 troops on the border as well as a temporary increase of troops in Honduras and Guatemala. Then-White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki announced in April 2021:
Well, there have been a series of bilateral discussions between our leadership and the regional governments of Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala. Through those discussions, there was a commitment, as you mentioned, to increase border security. So, Mexico made the decision to maintain 10,000 troops at its southern border, resulting in twice as many daily migrant interdictions. Guatemala surged 1,500 police and military personnel to its southern border with Honduras and agreed to set up 12 checkpoints along the migratory route. Honduras surged 7,000 police and military to disperse a large contingent of migrants.
Mexico's Foreign Affairs Ministry said then: "Mexico will maintain the existing deployment of federal forces in its border area, with the objective of enforcing its own immigration legislation, to attend to migrants, mainly unaccompanied minors, and to combat the trafficking of people."
According to Mexican news reports and reporting from Mexico's National Institute of Migration, a government agency, in 2021, Mexico had deployed 8,715 members of the army and National Guard as part of its "Nacional como parte del Plan de Migración y Desarrollo en la Frontera Norte y Sur" (Migration and Development Plan on the Northern and Southern Border). With Psaki's announcement, this number would increase to 10,000, so Mexico sent an additional 1,285 personnel.
However, before Biden's plan, the first Trump administration had already made a deal with Mexico to increase troop presence at its borders in 2019. Under pressure from Trump to curb migration and with his threat of imposing more tariffs, Mexico sent almost 15,000 members of its armed forces to the U.S.-Mexico border and several thousand of its National Guard to its southern border.
The recent movement of 10,000 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border is not vastly different from previous agreements, including the one made by Trump in his first administration. Per the Associated Press, the Mexican government is merely shifting troops from other parts of the country to its northern border, rather than deploying new troops to join the more than 10,000 already there. The Associated Press noted that even the tens of thousands of Mexican troops already at the U.S.-Mexico border before this deal have been unable to curb the organized-crime groups that enable smuggling of guns, drugs and asylum-seekers.
Do these troop surges actually affect the numbers of migrant border crossings from Mexico into the U.S? After the 2019 troop surge, there were initially very high apprehensions of migrants followed by a steep drop, which the Trump administration attributed to its "Remain in Mexico" program of requiring asylum-seekers to stay in northern Mexico. U.S. immigration lawyers noted in 2019 that even if the program reduced the number of apprehensions, it had "horrific humanitarian consequences." After the 2021 troop surge, The Washington Post noted that the number of migrants crossing increased.
Arias, Tatiana. "Mexico Sends Nearly 15,000 Troops to the US Border." CNN, 24 June 2019, https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/24/americas/mexico-sends-15000-troops-to-us-mexico-border-intl/index.html. Accessed 6 Feb. 2025.
Blake , Aaron. "Did Trump Cave on His Canada and Mexico Tariffs?" The Washington Post, 5 Feb. 2025, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/02/04/trump-tariffs-canada-mexico-concessions/. Accessed 6 Feb. 2025.
"Enviarían a Más de Mil Elementos a Reforzar La Contención de Migrantes." El Economista, 13 Apr. 2021, https://www.eleconomista.com.mx/politica/Enviarian-a-mas-de-mil-elementos-a-reforzar-la-contencion-de-migrantes-20210412-0164.html. Accessed 6 Feb. 2025.
Montoya-Galvez, Camilo. "Immigration in 2019: The Year Trump Restricted Legal Immigration and Shut off Asylum at the Border." CBS News. 5 Jan. 2020, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/immigration-2019-the-year-trump-restricted-legal-immigration-and-effectively-shut-off-asylum-at-the-border/. Accessed 6 Feb. 2025.
Neill, Tara. "Trump Puts Canada and Mexico Tariffs on Hold." NPR, 3 Feb. 2025. NPR, https://www.npr.org/2025/02/03/nx-s1-5285334/mexico-us-canada-tariffs-trump-sheinbaum. Accessed 6 Feb. 2025.
"Press Briefing by Press Secretary Jen Psaki, April 12, 2021." The White House, 12 Apr. 2021, https://bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefing-room/press-briefings/2021/04/12/press-briefing-by-press-secretary-jen-psaki-april-12-2021/. Accessed 6 Feb. 2025.
Shear, Michael D. "U.S. Reaches Agreements with Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala to Increase Enforcement against Migration." The New York Times, 12 Apr. 2021. NYTimes.com, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/12/us/politics/us-mexico-honduras-guatemala.html. Accessed 6 Feb. 2025.
"Tema Migratorio 130421." Instituto Nacional de Migracion. https://www.inm.gob.mx/gobmx/word/index.php/tema-migratorio-130421/. Accessed 6 Feb. 2025.
"Trump Agrees to Pause Tariffs on Canada and Mexico after They Pledge to Boost Border Enforcement." AP News, 3 Feb. 2025, https://apnews.com/article/trump-tariffs-canada-mexico-china-sheinbaum-trudeau-017efa8c3343b8d2a9444f7e65356ae9. Accessed 6 Feb. 2025.
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