U.S. military officials say troops deployed on a border security mission have arrived in the Big Bend region, with the number of troops set to grow to about 500 in the coming weeks.
At a Friday morning press briefing in Alpine, officials with the Army and border agencies said the deployment — part of the Trump administration’s broader military push across the Southern border — began on March 13.
About 200 troops from Fort Carson, Colorado are already on the ground in the Big Bend area, with the number set to grow to about 500 in the coming weeks, Army officials said. The deployment, like others happening across the Southwest, will involve the use of armored “Stryker” combat vehicles. Some of the troops — potentially with combat vehicles — will be operating near the border inside Big Bend National Park, officials said.
Officials stressed on Friday that the troops will not be directly involved in arresting people suspected of being in the U.S. without legal status, but will instead be operating in a “support” role for federal border agents. As part of a separate agreement between Texas and the Trump administration, some National Guard soldiers have been deputized to arrest people in recent weeks
“We will not be actively on patrols,” Maj. Gen. Jared Stefani, who is leading the Big Bend area Army battalion, told reporters. “We’ll be at detection and monitoring sites, to provide that information to Border Patrol, to then go out and do their law enforcement function.”
In addition to combat vehicles, the deployment will include Humvee-like tactical vehicles, fuel trucks and other vehicles, officials said. The Stryker vehicles will be primarily advantageous for navigating the region’s rugged terrain, Stefani said, but they could be outfitted with weapons.
“If the mission dictates for security purposes that we put our weapons systems on those Strykers, then they will be put on the Strykers,” he said.
In Presidio County, local officials said this month the Army was looking into housing many of the troops at county-owned airports near Marfa and Presidio.
Lt. Col. Sarah Ray, an Army spokesperson, confirmed Friday that the Marfa airport was still being considered as an option, but said the Army had not settled on a detailed plan for housing the hundreds of troops.
The Border Patrol’s Big Bend Sector has historically seen much lower numbers of people crossing the southern border compared to other parts of Texas and the Southwest. CBP reported just over 160 migrant encounters in the Big Bend sector in February, compared to almost 1,300 in South Texas and about 2,100 in the El Paso area the same month. Apprehensions across the Southern border dropped in February to their lowest levels in decades.
Asked about the need for troops in the Big Bend given those low numbers, the Border Patrol’s Big Bend Sector chief said the agency is seeking to know “each and every entry that’s happening.”
“Giving us those additional eyes and ears out there in order to maximize our opportunity to not only secure the border, but figure out where and when people came through, and to help them and/or apprehend them, that’s what we’re doing,” Chief Patrol Agent Lloyd Easterling said.
While the sight of National Guard troops has become common across Texas’ southern border amid the state’s own border security efforts, the Big Bend region has not seen a large-scale U.S. military deployment in years, if not decades.
According to a Border Patrol spokesperson, the last time active duty U.S. troops participated in border security efforts in the Big Bend region was in 2018 during the previous Trump administration.
Perhaps the most well-known period of military activity in the area dates to the late 1990s, when a federal covert drug operation culminated in the tragic killing of Esequiel Hernandez Jr., a teenager who was shot and killed by a U.S. Marine near the border town of Redford, Texas while herding his family’s goats.
Stefani said he was aware of that tragedy and had been reading up on it at the suggestion of local officials.
“I actually met with Esequiel’s brother yesterday in Presidio and talked to him about it,” he said. “I think about how that would impact a family, and how it has lasting impacts on the community.”
Stefani said soldiers on the Big Bend mission will be armed with their “assigned weapon systems,” but again stressed they will not be operating “in a law enforcement function.”
“With our standard rules for the use of force, soldiers do have the right to defend themselves,” he said.
Easterling, the local Border Patrol chief, said the Army troops will not be conducting covert operations.
“Nobody’s going to be hidden,” he said. “We want people to see where they are, because it’s a method of deterrence, that’s a big piece of it too.”
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