Mexico Pledges to Send 10,000 Troops to U.S. Border: What to Know

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President Claudia Sheinbaum’s government said the National Guard members had redeployed to more than 20 cities and towns along the U.S.-Mexico border as part of a deal to delay U.S. tariffs.

As part of her deal with President Trump to stave off steep tariffs on Mexico for a month, President Claudia Sheinbaum pledged to send 10,000 additional members of the country’s National Guard to the border to “prevent drug trafficking from Mexico to the United States, particularly fentanyl.”
The deal is likely to put a lot of pressure on the National Guard, a force that is just a few years old and was recently put under the control of Mexico’s military.
Unlike in the United States, there is no dedicated border patrol in Mexico. Because immigration officers are barred from carrying guns, Mexico relies on the military and National Guard to police the border, said Jonathan Maza, a Mexico-based security analyst.
In recent years, Mexico has relied heavily on the National Guard to help curb illegal migration into the United States. In 2019, under pressure from Mr. Trump over migration, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the country’s then-president and Ms. Sheinbaum’s mentor, sent National Guard troops to Mexico’s southern border with Guatemala.
Now that force, which has a total of about 130,000 members, is being asked to help more with stopping the flow of drugs north.
Ms. Sheinbaum said the 10,000 members would be pulled from other areas of the country, without providing specifics. She also would not say how much this would cost. The Mexican government said on Tuesday that the troops had already been redeployed to more than 20 cities and towns along the U.S. border.