How Trump is militarizing the US-Mexico border

The highest point of Mount Cristo Rey in El Paso, Texas, is so rugged that the tall steel bars that form the wall separating the United States from Mexico cannot reach it.

Up on the hill, on the Mexican side, a young man can be seen. He is what Border Patrol agents call a "hawk" — in charge of monitoring and deciding when and where immigrants will cross into American territory.

There, the young man is one of the few visible signs of what the US government describes as an "invasion" and a "crisis" at the border.

In the El Paso sector, which stretches from West Texas to New Mexico — and which is the busiest in terms of crossings and arrests along the 2,000-mile border — agents remember when there were 2,500 arrests a day. Now there are just 67.

In April, 8,000 people were detained across the border for entering the country illegally. A year earlier, that number was 128,000, according to government statistics.

Despite the decline in numbers, which began in the final months of Joe Biden's government and accelerated with the hardline policies of his successor, Donald Trump, the border is undergoing a progressive process of militarization.

A few kilometers from Monte Cristo Rey, a Stryker — a light but powerful eight-wheeled vehicle used in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — is positioned.

It is located just a few meters from the wall, in a desert zone that is part of one of the two new National Defense Areas, created in April and May, along a border that, for Trump, is a national emergency zone.

Around 1,700 posters in English and Spanish have been placed in the area warning of the risk of detention when entering the military zone.

Immigrants who enter these areas are considered trespassers and may be temporarily detained by US soldiers until Border Patrol agents arrive.

The military command claims that its mission is to detain and alert border agents so that they can make the official arrest. By doing so, they want to prevent the Armed Forces from being accused of carrying out police functions within the national territory, something prohibited by law.

Trump, like no other president before him, is using the most powerful military in the world to control the border with Mexico, and it is estimated that there are already more than 8,000 soldiers along the dividing line, in addition to more than 100 Strykers, as well as planes and drones, and two Navy ships patrolling the coasts.

'95% is not 100%'

"Containment is 95 percent. But 95 percent is not 100 percent. The number of crossings is historically low, but it's not zero," said Brig. Gen. Jeremy Winters, deputy commander for operations for Joint Task Force-Southern Border, a new mechanism to coordinate efforts across security forces.

Recently, taking advantage of what experts consider a loophole in the law, Trump gave the military an even greater role in border control tasks.

"The complexity of the current situation requires that our military take a more direct role in securing our southern border," Trump said in an executive order signed on April 11.

With this, he authorized the creation of National Defense Areas by transferring to the Department of Defense all federal border lands that, until then, had been administered by the Department of the Interior.

Between April 18 and May 1, the Pentagon created two National Defense Areas, both bordering the Mexican state of Chihuahua, and effectively converted them into parts of existing military bases.

The first of these, which covers 273 km in New Mexico, is considered part of Fort Huachuca, a military base located dozens of kilometers away, in the neighboring state of Arizona.

And the Texas National Defense Area spans 53 miles between El Paso and Fort Hancock counties, and now serves Fort Bliss, one of the largest military installations in the country.

These sections "will improve our ability to detect, intercept and prosecute illegal immigrants, criminal groups and terrorists, like those who have invaded our country without consequences over the past four years," said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

"And it will also strengthen our defense against fentanyl and other dangerous drugs that have poisoned our communities," he added.

"We offer a variety of unique military capabilities to complement border control," explains Brigadier General Winters.

He ticks off the assets — Black Hawk helicopters, Chinooks and Lakotas — highlighting the Stryker armored vehicles, with their ability to move over rough terrain faster than Border Patrol trucks and “their impressive sensor array.”

"And as Armed Forces, we bring a unique capability: to [obtain] intelligence that the Border Patrol does not have," he emphasizes.

Loophole in the law

Blaine Bennett, deputy commander of Customs and Border Protection for Joint Task Force Southern Border, says the integration of agents at the border is something he has not seen in 20 years of service.

Both those responsible for the operations also highlight greater coordination with forces on the Mexican side, with which they already carry out "mirror patrols" at some points.

The growing increase in military presence on American territory raises fears and criticism that those responsible try to minimize.

"If we identify someone in the national defense zone, we obviously contact the security forces in the area, because we do not have the authority to arrest people," Winters points out.

This is because, in the United States, the Posse Comitatus law prevents the federal Armed Forces from participating in public order tasks unless Congress has expressly authorized it.

“However, the prohibition does not apply if the primary purpose of the troop actions is military,” said Elizabeth Goitein, director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, a nonprofit think tank specializing in rights and public policy.

This is what is known as the "doctrine of military purpose."

"A typical case that responds to this doctrine is when there is an army base and someone enters it illegally," explains the expert.

"Because, in this situation, the military cannot just call the police and wait for them to arrive while the person walks around the base. They need to protect them," he explains.

Goitein believes this is the legal tool the Trump administration is using to justify the creation of these National Defense Areas.

"That's exactly what the administration is trying to do: turn a third of the southern border into a military installation so that when someone comes into the area and is detained, they can argue that the primary reason for doing so is to protect the base."

In this way, according to the expert, they manage to "generate less political and legal resistance".

Much more opposition would have been generated if Trump had invoked the Insurrection Act of 1807, which allows the executive branch to deploy troops into a territory in the event of a rebellion.

The president put the idea on the table during his first term, following the protests sparked in 2020 by the death of African-American George Floyd at the hands of a white police officer.

In January of this year, he brought the idea back when, in issuing an executive order declaring a border emergency, he gave Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem 90 days to advise him on whether to invoke the Insurrection Act to help gain “complete operational control” of the area bordering Mexico.

Trump is thus intensifying the militarization of the border under the pretext of an emergency, while the numbers of illegal crossings are at historically low levels, which for Goitein is a clear contradiction.

Total control

"Accepting that 95 percent containment [of illegal crossings] is sufficient is like accepting that, conceptually, it's okay to break the law, and that's not what we're doing here," Brig. Gen. Winters said.

"Our job is to control it completely."

According to the military command, in combined patrols they detected and arrested 150 "invaders".

Dozens of them have already been presented to the judge in Las Cruces District Court in New Mexico.

In addition to the charge of illegally entering the United States, prosecutors accused them of intentionally violating security regulations in the now-declared restricted areas.

Both charges are classified as misdemeanors. While entering the country illegally through a location other than a designated port of entry carries a maximum penalty of six months in prison and a fine of up to $5,000, the second charge increases the prison sentence to up to one year and the fine to $100,000.

"The immigrants continue arriving as usual, but suddenly they face military charges. And they don't understand anything," says Carlos Ibarra, a lawyer for several detainees.

For Judge Gregory B. Wormuth, however, there is no confusion.

On Thursday of last week (15/05), he stated that the federal government had not demonstrated that the immigrants knew they were entering a restricted military zone. Finding no probable cause, he dismissed the charges filed against 98 of the accused.

According to the lawyers, some of the immigrants crossed the border before the posters were put up, and others crossed without being able to see them.

The posters, the new National Defense Areas and the Strykers confirm the gradual militarization of the border that Trump already sought in his first term, but which was rejected at the time by the military, something that is no longer the case with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, aligned with the president.

The Army sees meaning in this internal mission.

"We have data that shows that the price of drugs is going up because competition is getting tougher, since we're protecting the border. Just as the price of getting someone across our border has gone up. We're having an impact, but it's not enough for us yet," Winters said.

He points out that the militarization of the border will continue, something that, according to the Pentagon, has already cost more than US$500 million.

In fact, Trump recently said that he pressured the president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, to allow the Army to cross into Mexican territory in order to carry out operations against the cartels, something that she vehemently rejected.

For now, the troops are on the U.S. side of the border, close to Mexico but far from the traditional dangerous international missions.

"That's their primary mission. This is not a training exercise. This is an operation to protect our border, our country and the families in the United States who are being torn apart by violence and drugs," Winters said.

Just a few meters from the border wall, under a relentless sun, there is no sign of movement on either the United States or Mexican side.