EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – A military airplane carrying 120 Mexican National Guard troops landed in Juarez, Mexico, Tuesday morning.
The reinforcements to the 1,600 Guardsmen already on a permanent rotation in Juarez are part of President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo’s commitment to shore up security at its border with the United States, Mexican officials said.
The troops will patrol "all 800 kilometers of border between Chihuahua and the United States," Lt. Col. Jose Luis Santos told reporters in Juarez.
The troops will also support local, state and federal law enforcement agencies. They will not engage in investigations nor participate in detentions that do not involve the flagrant commission of a crime.
"They are here as part of the accords between presidents Sheinbaum and Trump to reinforce the border with the National Guard to prevent the trafficking of drugs from Mexico to the United States -- primarily fentanyl. That is the mission," said Santos, who heads the 31st Battalion of the Mexican National Guard.
He said other National Guard units will be arriving in Juarez and in other Mexican cities that border the U.S. "They will be all along the border between our country and the United States," he said. "It will be permanent vigilance on the border."
Mexico in the past has sent large contingents of National Guard troops to the border, especially after flareups of drug violence. Guard patrols can routinely be observed on some of Juarez's main avenues and near the Rio Grande.
The agreement was borne out of threat by Trump to slap Mexico with a 25% tariff on all exports to the United States for its failure to stop migrants and fentanyl from crossing its territory and coming into the United States.
Sheinbaum demanded, in return, that the U.S. crack down in illegal firearms exports to Mexico. Those guns are being imported by the Mexican drug cartels and killing thousands of Mexicans each year.
ProVideo in Juarez, Mexico, contributed to this report.