U.S. military officials recently confirmed that Mexican drug cartels are using drones to observe U.S. military troops deployed along the southern border between the United States and Mexico under President Donald Trump’s administration.
According to Scripps News, roughly 10,000 U.S. military service members are currently deployed along the southern border as part of the 47th president’s crackdown on illegal immigration. The outlet noted that it was recently accompanied by U.S. Army officials on a visit to the southern border in Arizona to witness the military’s “Joint Task Force – Southern Border” mission.
Addressing the mission of the troops deployed along the southern border under the Trump administration, Lt. Col. Lukas Berg told Scripps News, “Their mission is to support Customs and Border Patrol in controlling the U.S. Southern Border and preserving the territorial integrity of the United States.”
Officials told Scripps News that the U.S. military has witnessed the Mexican drug cartels using drones to observe the operations of military personnel along the southern border.
“We are privy to significant reporting on that. That is of significant interest to us because we’re operating aircraft in the same area,” Berg told Scripps News. “We’re observing, we are monitoring, and then we are passing those observations directly to Customs and Border Patrol.”
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According to Scripps News, U.S. military officials confirmed that one of the reasons the military has not engaged the drones near the southern border is that the military has not been authorized to shoot down the drones. However, officials told the outlet that the military does have the right to take action against any cartel drones that threaten the safety of U.S. troops operating along the southern border.
The War Zone reported that Air Force Gen. Gregory M. Guillot, commander of U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command, testified in front of the House Armed Services Committee last week regarding a “change to the rule of force” that he has proposed under the Trump administration.
According to The War Zone, Guillot explained that the proposed change would “allow us to shoot down or bring down drones that are surveilling over our deployed and mobile troops…not just that are in self-defense, but anything that’s surveilling and planning the next attack on us within five miles of the border.”
Guillot told the House Armed Services Committee last week that the U.S. military troops deployed at the southern border are currently not authorized to shoot down drones along the border “because they’re mobile,” according to The War Zone.
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