US troops deployed on border mission are killed in New Mexico (2025)

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Two US service members deployed to the US-Mexico border were killed and a third is in serious condition after a vehicle accident near Santa Teresa, New Mexico.

The accident occurred around 8:50am MDT Tuesday outside El Paso; the names of the deceased will not be released until the next of kin are notified.

The troops are deployed there in support of President Donald Trump’s executive order to secure the U.S.-Mexico border - Joint Task Force Southern Border.

The region where the accident took place is just over the state line and west of Fort Bliss, a major Army installation in West Texasthat has played a critical role in dispatching military deportation flights. It also served as a touchpoint for thousands of soldiers and pieces of equipment now deployed along the border.

The victims were Marines from Camp Pendleton in California, according to the Washington Post.

A defense official speaking on the condition of anonymity said the accident occurred in a civilian vehicle, but no civilians were harmed in the incident.

The incident did not involve any of the scores of Stryker vehicles the Pentagon has sent down to the border to perform patrols, the official said.

The cause of the accident remains under investigation.

'I am very saddened to learn of the tragic accident yesterday that took the lives of two of our nation’s heroes and seriously injured another,' Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on X.

'My heartfelt condolences and prayers are with them, their families, and the unit.'

Last month Hegseth ordered nearly 3,000 troops to the southern border as part of the White House's effort to shut down illegal immigration and drug trafficking.

The new troops would 'reinforce and expand current border security operations to seal the border and protect the territorial integrity of the United States,' the Pentagon said at the time.

Trump is determined to expand the military’s role in his effort to shut down the border and send detained migrants back to their home countries.

He ordered the military to take control of a 'buffer zone' in the New Mexico area and turn it into military installation at the border and allow US troops to temporarily hold migrants who cross over into the America.

The land is usually monitored by the Department of the Interior, though in the past, pieces have been given over to the Pentagon, as recently as Trump's first term.

The president has made fixing the migrant issue the top of his second term agenda and has seen success early on with illegal crossings plummeting from the record highs under predecessor Joe Biden.

The number of troops stationed at the southern border has doubled since Trump directed the Pentagon to take 'full operational control' of the ongoing crisis.

Military personnel have been sent to the border almost continuously since the 1990s to help address migration, drug trafficking and transnational crime.

The military is largely prohibited by federal law from many law enforcement duties by the Posse Comitatus Act.

ButTrump has gotten around the law during his second term by using Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) or Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to detain migrants and then moving them.

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