The Pentagon Deploys Armoured Vehicles to Monitor the Mexican Border

The US Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, has ordered the deployment of a unit of 3,000 soldiers to reinforce security at the Mexican border. Hegseth has also mobilised a motorised brigade composed of helicopters and armoured combat vehicles. The primary mission of this contingent, which will be deployed this week, is to "reinforce and expand current border security operations to seal the border and protect the territorial integrity of the United States," according to a statement issued by the Pentagon.

The use of these armoured vehicles, Stryker models, against irregular migration flows is unprecedented and has alarmed civil rights defence movements this weekend. Each unit weighs twenty tonnes and is designed for combat, not for providing civil surveillance services. In fact, the White House supplied a fleet of ninety of these vehicles to Ukraine, which has used them to capture part of Russia's Kursk region.

The soldiers hail from the 4th Infantry Division at Fort Carson, Colorado, and will be joined by other military experts in intelligence and engineering. Initially, the armoured vehicles will be concentrated in Arizona, where they will conduct military exercises.

The Mexican border is becoming a fortress since Donald Trump arrived at the White House. Under the threat of imposing tariffs on its products, the president secured from his Mexican counterpart, Claudia Sheinbaum, the deployment of 10,000 soldiers to the border to combat drug trafficking and prevent clandestine migration crossings. In reality, the Republican leader is replicating the policy of his first term, when he stationed 8,000 army personnel at the border. Now his aim is to surpass that contingent. With the new brigade in place, the number of military personnel monitoring the border will rise to 9,000 from this month.