US Army patrols along the US-Mexico border with combat vehicles: Kamil O Montoya Galvez: Take control of a 700-mile stretch of land on the southern border and turn it into an army base.
Critics say this is an effort to get around the prohibition on using the military for domestic law enforcement. Jason Allen got a firsthand look at what’s happening there.
We were at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, when the army delivered more than 50 armored Stryker fighting vehicles.
Designed for the battlefield, they are a centerpiece of President Trump’s plan to seal the southern border.
Sergeant First Class Carlos Zamora is one of the soldiers from Fort Carson, Colorado, using infrared cameras on the Stryker watching for the tiniest movements along the border.
With the Strykers and soldiers, President Trump is creating a border barrier that is more than just a wall. He has now authorized the military to take control of a 60-foot strip of federal land along the border, stretching from California to New Mexico. Now migrants would be crossing into a military installation. It would allow soldiers to make apprehensions, a job that until now has been reserved for the Border Patrol.
Orlando Marrera Rubio showed us how bus access helped drastically cut border crossings before the army arrived. There are about 7,200 crossings during the entire month of March. In 2023, there were some days when more than 10,000 people crossed on a mountain where foot trails have been worn into the hillside. On this morning, we didn’t see a single person trying to cross.
Just the sight of the Strykers has turned out to be intimidating for some people. Soldiers told me that they have watched people approach the border wall, see the Strykers perched up there above it.
Source: raialkhalij + aljazeera