The Pentagon has deployed roughly 3,000 active duty troops to bolster security at the southern border of the United States.

A Stryker Brigade Combat Team, including its Stryker vehicles, is set to arrive at the southern border in “the coming weeks,” according to the Defense Department. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the troops to the border to “to reinforce and expand current border security operations to seal the border and protect the territorial integrity of the United States,” a Defense spokesman said.

“[T]heir deployment underscores the Department’s unwavering dedication to working alongside the Department of Homeland Security to secure our southern border and maintain the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and security of the United States under President Trump’s leadership,” Defense spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement.

Hegseth approved the order directing the Stryker team to the border on Friday, according to The Washington Post. The Stryker team will be bolstered by troops that specialize in engineering, intelligence, and public affairs.

The Trump administration has taken a more aggressive stance toward policing immigration at the southern border and combatting the influence of drug cartels on the Mexican side. In a January 31 phone call between Hegseth and Mexican officials, the Defense secretary warned that the United States may take unilateral military action to deal with the cartels unless the Mexican government cracks down on the criminal organizations, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Mexican officials interpreted the phone call as a warning that the United States military might start operating on Mexican soil to combat the drug cartels, a move that Mexican officials have said would undermine Mexican sovereignty.

“We are dead serious about 100% OPERATIONAL CONTROL of the southern border,” Hegseth said in a Saturday post on social media.

We are dead serious about 100% OPERATIONAL CONTROL of the southern border. https://t.co/5bzvEQ8qPu

— Pete Hegseth (@PeteHegseth) March 1, 2025

Illegal crossings at the southern border have plummeted since President Donald Trump took office in January. Trump celebrated some of the most recent numbers on social media over the weekend.

“The month of February, my first full month in Office, had the LOWEST number of Illegal Immigrants trying to enter our Country in History – BY FAR!” Trump said. “There were only 8,326 apprehensions of Illegals by Border Patrol at the U.S.-Mexico Border, all of whom were quickly ejected from our Nation or, when necessary, prosecuted for crimes against the United States of America.”

“This means that very few people came – The Invasion of our Country is OVER,” he added. “In comparison, under Joe Biden, there were 300,000 Illegals crossing in one month, and virtually ALL of them were released into our Country.”