Hundreds of Camp Pendleton Marines deployed this month as part of the ongoing mission at the U.S.-Mexico border, the Pentagon said.
The reported 450 to 500 Marines are from the 1st Combat Engineer Battalion and will be supporting Border Patrol operations near Yuma, AZ.
A Joint Task Force Southern Border spokesperson told KPBS the Marines are part of the regular rotation of forces at the border. They replaced Marines from Combat Logistics Battalion 15 — also based at Camp Pendleton.
Marines from the 1st Combat Engineer Battalion were among the first San Diego-area units sent to the border early this year.
Photos and videos from the U.S. Department of Defense show Marines stringing concertina wire along existing border fences and clearing brush during the border mission.
This month, the Interior Department announced that much of California's border with Mexico is now designated a national defense area — a militarized zone 60 feet wide.
Federal law prohibits the military from engaging in domestic law enforcement. The new designation allows the Pentagon to treat the border as a military base and permits troops to contact and detain migrants.
It also allows federal prosecutors to add trespassing charges to migrants caught in the designated areas.
The national defense designations began in Arizona in April and soon spread to New Mexico and parts of Texas.
Each area is under the administrative control of nearby military installations, the JTF Southern Border spokesperson said.
They are:
- Ft. Huachuca, AZ — southern New Mexico
- Ft. Bliss, Texas — West Texas
- Joint Base San Antonio — South Texas
- Marine Corps Air Station Yuma — southern Arizona
- Naval Air Facility El Centro — Southern California
The Pentagon says its personnel have made more than 3,000 detentions in the national defense areas since April.
