(FOX 5/KUSI) — Active-duty Marines are now stationed at the U.S.-Mexico border in a remote area of southeastern San Diego County.
The troops are staying near a Border Patrol Station in the community of Campo, just over a mile north of the border and a few miles east of the Mexican border city of Tecate.
According to CalMatters, which sent a reporting team there at the end of June, some Marines said they are patrolling the border twice a day.
A Border Patrol agent reportedly said that the Marines are “…there for assistance along the border.”
Pictures shared by CalMatters show dozens of tents erected at the CBP station in the last days of June.
In a satatemtn to FOX 5/KUSI, the Border Patrol’s San Diego Sector said that Marines and Army personnel were assigned to the border mission in January to help with “infrastructure improvements, as well as detection and monitoring along the border.”
The deployment is one of the latest examples of the Trump administration’s use of U.S. troops to handle immigration-related matters.
In recent weeks, National Guard members and Marines were deployed to Los Angeles after protests over immigration enforcement, but the troops were largely stationed outside of federal buildings.
At the Border Patrol station, the Marines have not reported detaining anyone, and California officials reportedly do not have clear details on what the troops are doing, CalMatters said.
This spring, Trump declared a stretch of land along the U.S. border with Mexico as a military installation, which allows troops to patrol similar to how they guard military bases.
Thousands of troops have since been deployed to the border in recent weeks to help “maintain security.”
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