U.S. Border Patrol agents recently reported witnessing a Mexican soldier, armed with automatic weapons, cross over into the U.S. near Jacumba, California.
The incident occurred near an abandoned illegal immigrant camp on the Mexican side of the border, in a mountainous area where the Mexican National Guard has been camped since early February, according to the Epoch Times.
National Border Patrol Council spokesperson, Manny Bayon told the Epoch Times that incursions by the Mexican military are directly reported to headquarters and the White House is notified. He had watched a video, obtained by Epoch Times, of the soldier slipping into and out of the U.S. in the hills near the San Judas break. Bayon said it was obvious the soldier was on U.S. soil.
“They should know better,” indicating he had been on top of the hill where the soldier was. “There’s a boundary marker on top of that hill,” denoting the boundary of each nation was clearly marked.
Bayon added it was extremely concerning for someone entering into the U.S. with automatic weapons.
“I mean, they’re not coming here with flowers or to make things better,” he said. “It’s concerning because they do counter surveillance on us.”
He also noted that just because someone was dressed in a Mexican uniform didn’t mean they were military.
“The cartels have also used military uniforms to make it look like they are military—but they’re actually cartel,” he said.
According to a retried border agent and Christian News Journal (CNJ) source, it is a serious offence for the Mexican military if they are caught on the north side of the border and identified as military and/or cartel operatives.
The Center for Immigration Studies senior national fellow and former counterterrorism intelligence officer, Todd Bensman, told the Epoch Times the Mexican military he interviewed said they were rounding up migrants near the U.S. border and moving them south. Bensman reported they said their orders were to hunt all immigrants and give them Mexican immigration for deportation and that their orders were “open-ended.”
Bensman also told the Epoch Times that the military presence along the south-side of the border was connected to the Biden Administration’s bilateral meetings with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in late 2023 and early 2024.
He indicated that after the delegation returned to the U.S. Mexico began “one of the most epic domestic anti-illegal-immigration operations in recent memory.” He “surmised” that the administration “cut a deal” with Mexico to crackdown on immigrants headed to the U.S. border.
Reportedly, across Mexico immigrants are being rounded up. The military is actively working all over the northern border, blocking access to railyards, pulling migrants off the tops of trains in an unprecedented and widespread crackdown on illegal migration. However, Bensman suggested it was more geared toward optics during an election year than correcting the ongoing immigration issue.
Robyn Spradlin is a freelance journalist working as a contributor for Christian News Journal covering news and politics on the national and state levels. She has worked as a copywriter for Victory News on the Victory Channel since 2022. Robyn has a BA in Communication Studies and an MA in Journalism from Regent University and is a member of the Evangelical Press Association. She is an author, evangelistic minister and a musician. She lives in South Florida, where she enjoys the outdoors when she’s not writing.