Army Strykers deployed along Mexican border

SUNLAND PARK, New Mexico (Border Report) – Miles of Mexican border can be seen with the naked eye in daytime from atop a hill in the southern tip of Sunland Park.

With an array of electronic sensors, radar and infrared equipment, the crew of a newly deployed M1126 Stryker vehicle can detect movement even farther day or night and instantly communicate it to other Army units or U.S. Border Patrol agents.

The 19-ton, eight-wheeled vehicle also looks imposing when seen from Mexico, and that’s on purpose.

“This sends a clear and unequivocal message to the criminal organizations operating on either side of the border that we will not tolerate illegal incursions or illicit activities along our border,” said Border Patrol spokesman Claudio Herrera-Baeza. “These vehicles have incredible detection technology that the Border Patrol will incorporate into its mission of safeguarding our borders.”

The first two of an undisclosed number of Strykers were deployed this week for border surveillance duty in a notorious migrant smuggling corridor in the desert of Southern New Mexico.

Other M1126s are on assignment in the Big Bend area of West Texas.

Their deployment has prompted migrant advocates and Trump administration critics to characterize them as overkill. This, given migrant encounters have been falling border-wide since last June. Democratic House members also have raised concerns about the cost of their deployment, the use of military bases to house and deport migrants, and whether the mission will interfere with military readiness.

Army and U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials on Friday referred cost and policy questions to the Department of Defense in Washington, D.C.

But Border Patrol agents welcomed the addition of Army equipment and more boots on the ground in particularly problematic areas.

“It is a force multiplier that will allow us to detect and track faster and more accurately any illegal entry into the United States so our agents can make that apprehension and identify who is crossing illegally and make sure they are removed” from the country, said Orlando Marrero-Rubio, another El Paso Sector Border Patrol agent.

The military is taking what appears to be a permanent role in border security with the establishment of Joint Task Force Southern Border (JTF-SB) earlier this month. The new command in Fort Huachuca, Arizona will coordinate Department of Defense efforts to "secure and seal" the southern border, according to a March 14 announcement by the U.S. Northern Command.

Lt. Col. Chad Campbell, battalion commander of the 2nd Stryker Brigade of the 1st Battalion, 41st Infantry Regiment of the 4th Infantry Division based in Fort Carson, Colorado, said communities along the Mexican border can expect to see more of the eight-wheeled armored vehicles rolling along the highways soon.

"Our deployment reinforces protecting our nation's territorial integrity by providing critical detection and monitoring capabilities to support border security operations," Campbell said at a news conference Friday near Monument 3 of the border wall in Sunland Park. "Stryker support enhances CBP's and the Department of Homeland Security's ability to focus on law enforcement actions to strengthen border security."

Military and federal officials emphasized the soldiers aren't here to arrest drug couriers or apprehend migrants, tasks that will remain with the Border Patrol. Campbell said one of the unit's goals is to keep the local population safe.

Marrero-Rubio said apprehensions have dropped dramatically in February and so far in March, with fewer than 50 migrants taken into custody each day between Hudspeth County, Texas, and the Arizona-New Mexico state line.

He said the first 48 hours in which the Strykers have been on duty have resulted in zero "gotaways" in the stretch of New Mexico where they were deployed. Gotaways are migrants spotted coming over the border wall but not apprehended because agents lose track of them or they melt into nearby communities like Sunland Park.

"Our goal is to have zero gotaways, zero illegal crossings," Marrero-Rubio said.