Ariz. NOGALES.An Army scout inside an armored vehicle points a long-range optical scope at a man atop a vehicle that is slicing through the hills of this frontier village in Arizona using a joystick.
Between concertina wire coils, the man lowers himself toward American land. A U.S. Border Patrol SUV speeds toward the wall as shouts and an alert are raised, giving the man enough warning to send him scurrying back over it and into Mexico.
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President Donald Trump’s declaration of an emergency has discouraged migrant crossings between U.S. ports of entry, and Tuesday’s sighting was one of only two for the Army infantry battalion patrolling this section of the southern border.
Army Sgt. Ana Harker-Molina, 24, expressed the boredom that some of her fellow soldiers were experiencing because of the few sightings by saying, “Deterrence is actually boring.”
Despite this, she stated she is proud of the work since she knows that the very presence of the army deters crossings.
According to Harker-Molina, an immigrant who arrived from Panama at the age of 12 and obtained U.S. citizenship two years ago while serving in the Army, “just sitting here watching the border is helping our country.”
Even as the number of unlawful crossing attempts declines, Trump has offered signing and retention bonuses of $10,000, and U.S. force deployments at the border have tripled to 7,600, involving all branches of the military.
From a new command center at a remote Army intelligence training site along the Huachuca Mountains in southern Arizona, the military mission is directed. There, a village hall has been converted into a busy war room with digital maps that identify military camps and movements along the approximately 2,000-mile border, complete with battalion commanders and staff.
Up until recently, civilian law enforcement has been in charge of border enforcement, with the military only sometimes intervening. Large portions of the border, however, were declared militarized zones in April, allowing U.S. forces to detain foreign nationals and anybody who are suspected of trespassing on Army, Air Force, or Navy installations and authorizing further criminal charges that carry a jail sentence.
To work closely with U.S. Border Patrol agents in high-traffic regions for illegal crossings and to quickly deploy to distant, unsecured terrain, troops are being released from maintenance and warehousing duties, according to the mission’s two-star general.
There is no cap on the number of hours we may work in a day or the number of shifts we can man, and we don’t have a (labor) union,” Army Maj. Gen. Scott Naumann stated.
Now that we can see the cartels changing their tactics, we can fly individuals into extremely distant places and deploy forces whenever necessary to combat the issue, sometimes for days at a time.
Patrols designed to prevent escapes
In accordance with established military regulations incorporated into the border mission, Army scouts patrolled the border at Nogales wearing full war gear, including an M5 service rifle, a helmet, and a bulletproof vest. They were also authorized to use lethal force if assaulted. For many years, smugglers tried to sneak illegal goods into the United States by digging tunnels under stormwater drains.
With sensors that can identify anyone walking the desert, Naumann’s command post is in charge of an armada of 117 armored Stryker vehicles, over 35 helicopters, and six long-distance drones that can patrol the border day and night. As the Trump administration restarts border wall construction, Marine Corps engineers are implementing concertina wire to slow crossings.
In a race against time that can last seconds in urban areas as people disappear into smuggling vehicles or days in the dense wetland thickets of the Rio Grande or the vast desert and mountainous wilderness of Arizona, Naumann said the focus is on stopping got-aways who elude authorities to disappear into the U.S.
In the meantime, the border’s apprehension rate has dropped to its lowest level in 60 years.
As the military steps up pressure and resources to starve smuggling cartels, particularly Latin American groups newly labeled as foreign terrorist organizations, Naumann claims the biggest issue is the decline in illegal entries.
However, he argues that it would be foolish to slow down and that crossings might increase as the sweltering summer heat subsides.
Regarding the mission without a set end date, he stated, “We have to keep going after it, we’re having some successes, we are trending positively.”
There are gray areas in militarized zones.
From protecting federal buildings in Los Angeles from protests over ICE detentions to supporting Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Florida to preparing to house detained immigrants on military bases in New Jersey, Indiana, and Texas, the Trump administration is leveraging the military extensively to strengthen its immigration operations.
According to Dan Maurer, a law professor at Ohio Northern University and a former U.S. Army judge advocate officer, “it’s all part of the same strategy that is a very muscular, robust, intimidating, aggressive response to this to show his base that he was serious about a campaign promise to fix immigration.”
It’s both out of the ordinary and unconventional. It creates a very uncomfortable situation for the military.
An 1878 rule that forbids the military from carrying out civilian law enforcement on American territory is known as the militarized zones along the border.
It falls into that murky region where it might or might not constitute a violation. Joshua Kastenberg, a professor at the University of New Mexico School of Law and a former Air Force judge, stated that the military has always had the right to make arrests and hold persons on military facilities.
As Border Patrol agents increase, Michael Fisher, a security consultant and former Border Patrol chief from 2010 to 2016, refers to the military buildup at the border as a force multiplier.
“Border Patrol is able to flex into other areas where they would not normally be able to,” he said, thanks to the military.
Political hazards and moral dilemmas are inherent in the plan.
In 1997, a Marine Corps squad on a border anti-drug patrol in the isolated Big Bend Region of western Texas shot and killed an 18-year-old American citizen who was herding goats. Esequiel Hernandez was an honor student, according to the authorities, and had nothing to do with the drug trade.
Bill Clinton’s military mission to the border was terminated as a result of the incident, which heightened tensions along the border.
Some locals in New Mexico are outraged that favorite sites for hunting, hiking, and off-road motorsports are now off-limits for enjoyment due to recent rules that restrict access to militarized zones.
According to Naumann, adults who wish to gain access to military bases must apply online and consent to a criminal background check, which he describes as a standard requirement.
Our goal is not to prevent Americans from engaging in recreation in their homeland. “That’s not the point of this,” he stated.
Military-grade gear
On Wednesday morning, Border Patrol vehicles drove up the mostly unfenced slopes of Mt. Cristo Rey, a famous peak with a crucifix atop it that rises above the Mexican city of Ciudad Ju rez and the metropolitan outskirts of El Paso, without seeing another person.
The summit is located at the intersection of two recently established military zones that are extensions of Army installations at Fort Huachuca in Arizona and Fort Bliss in Texas. An additional 250-mile (400-kilometer) area in the Texas Rio Grande Valley has been added by the Defense Department and connected to an Air Force facility.
A 32-mile (50-kilometer) section of the border near Yuma, Arizona, which was turned over to the military by the Department of Interior on Wednesday, will be supervised by the Navy.
The Roman Catholic diocese, which owns a large portion of the territory and claims that a wall would hinder a hallowed refuge for religious pilgrimages, has objected to plans by the Homeland Security Department to close a 1.3-mile (2-kilometer) gap in the border wall at Mt. Cristo Rey.
Army Spc. Luisangel Nito used an infrared scope that detects body heat to monitor the valley beneath Mt. Cristo Rey from a nearby mesa top. He saw three individuals entering the country illegally so the Border Patrol could arrest them. Additionally, Nito’s squad is equipped to ground small drones that smugglers employ to map their routes of entry.
Born in the United States, Nito is the son of Mexican immigrants who came through the same valleys he now patrols in the 1990s.
This is where they crossed,” he said. They warned me to exercise caution because they stated it was risky when they crossed.
During the 2008 financial crisis, Nito’s parents left for Mexico, but the soldier returned and enlisted in the United States after seeing better prospects there. Regarding his involvement in holding illegal immigrants, he had no concerns.
It’s a job, of course,” he added, “and I signed up for it and I’m going to do it.”
As Naumann advocates for the unification of civilian law enforcement and military personnel, troops use marked Border Patrol vehicles at Mt. Cristo Rey and other locations.
According to Neumann, if there is a secret sauce, as it were, it is integrating at every level.
