Mexico on Tuesday began moving troops to its northern border as part of a 10,000-member deployment that President Claudia Sheinbaum promised US counterpart Donald Trump in exchange for a delay of his tariffs.
“The deployment has already started,” Sheinbaum told reporters a day after announcing a last-minute deal with Trump to tighten measures against illegal migration and cross-border smuggling of the drug fentanyl.
Several hundred members of the National Guard were seen boarding a military airplane in the southeastern city of Merida, heading for the Mexican-US border.
Troops were seen arriving in Tijuana, just south of California, and Ciudad Juarez, bordering Texas.
“There will be patrols along the entire US-Mexico border,” said Jose Luis Santos, National Guard coordinator in Ciudad Juarez.
“Patrols will be conducted on foot and by vehicle, as well as patrols on various roads leading to the border,” he told reporters.
Authorities from both countries also started a joint operation in Ciudad Juarez to locate a possible tunnel used by migrants to cross into the United States.
They found a storm drain during a search on Tuesday, but it did not lead into US territory, said the government of Chihuahua state, where Ciudad Juarez is located.
Last month, US and Mexican security agencies discovered a clandestine border tunnel going from Ciudad Juarez into El Paso, Texas.
The tunnel measured approximately 300 meters (1,000 feet) in length on the Mexican side and was hidden in a storm sewerage system operating between both cities.
Mexico had repeatedly pledged to Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, that it would tackle illegal flows of drugs and migrants, and border states already have a heavy security presence, including thousands of troops.
Trump on Saturday announced sweeping measures against the United States’ three biggest trading partners: Canada, China, and Mexico.
Its immediate neighbors were to face a tariff of 25 percent, the president said, and China an additional 10 percent on top of existing duties.
Canada and Mexico announced plans for reciprocal levies before both countries’ presidents managed to strike a deal with Trump on Monday that saw him delay the tariffs by a month.
Markets had slumped Monday after the weekend threats sparked fears of a global trade war.
Sheinbaum said troops had been taken from parts of the country that “do not have as much of a security problem.”
Several hundred thousand people have been killed since Mexico deployed the army to combat trafficking in 2006, according to official figures.
The US border deployment “does not leave the rest of the country without security,” the president said.
