Mexico begins deployment of 10,000 troops on US border

Mexico’s National Guard officers on the Mexican side of the US-Mexico border in Playas de Tijuana, Baja California state, on February 3, 2025. — AFP

MEXICO CITY: Mexico began on Tuesday the 10,000-strong border troop deployment it had promised US President Donald Trump in exchange for delaying a 25-percent tariff on exported goods, President Claudia Sheinbaum said.

“The deployment has already started,” she told reporters a day after announcing a last-minute deal with Trump to tighten measures against illegal migration and cross-border smuggling of the drug fentanyl.

Trump on Saturday announced sweeping measures against the United States´s three biggest trading partners: Canada, China and Mexico.

Its immediate neighbors were to pay an export tariff of 25 percent, the president announced, and China an additional 10 percent on top of existing duties.