As Trump claims to militarize the border, quiet on Arizona’s frontier

On a windy afternoon, the 30-foot-high border wall makes a low rumbling groan.

Similar to a low-geared truck, the sound echoes into the San Pedro’s dry riverbed where the border wall and dozens of heavy gates span what was once one of Arizona’s last free rivers. From Naco, Ariz., to the river, the border wall runs for nearly 12 miles of uninterrupted armor—ranging from 18-foot high sections installed during the Obama administration to new 30-foot high sections built during President Donald Trump’s first term.

Except for a half-dozen Border Patrol agents and a blue Dodge Ram hauling wood in Mexico, this section of border wall remains strikingly quiet, a counterpoint to the Trump administration’s declarations of a “national emergency” requiring an expanded role for the military and the turnover of thousands of acres of public land.

Along that stretch over the Easter weekend, just a half-dozen Border Patrol agents were working the area. There were no signs of Trump’s much-vaunted deployment of active-duty troops.

Near the San Pedro, one agent drove up with a dog in his truck, approaching reporters.

“It’s been really quiet,” he said. 

When agents are told people are crossing the border, four or five agents rush to the spot, hoping for something to do, he said.

He added that it’s been difficult to keep his dog sharp. When he arrives at a scene, fellow agents are already there, and each time he loses a chance to get his dog out for a search. 

“I’ve gotten agents to go hide and let the dog search for them” for practice, he said.

He said Mexican military officials are working operations on the other side, and have  broken down smuggling camps in that country, making it more difficult for smugglers to traffic through the area. 

Another agent said his fellows are doing “time-trials,” challenging each other to race up a mountain side. He notes he used to walk more than 30 miles in a day searching for people, but now he sits in his vehicle waiting. 

“I’ve got to hit treadmill to get my miles,” he said.

“It’s so quiet,” said another agent. He later said he was certain the “other side” is “working on something,” but for now there are few crossings in the area. 

Apprehensions along the U.S.-Mexico border been decreasing since last June, but in the past few months, they have dropped to historic lows. In March, Border Patrol agents took 7,181 people into custody, a 14 percent decrease from February, and a 95 percent decrease from March 2024 when agents apprehended around 137,000 people. 

“U.S. Border Patrol’s apprehensions along the southwest border for the entire month of March 2025 were lower than the first two days of March 2024,” said Pete Flores, the acting CBP commissioner in a prepared statement. “This is a testament to the tireless dedication and vigilant service of the men and women of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, who work every day to keep our country safe. Their commitment on the front lines plays a vital role in securing our borders and protecting American communities.”

‘Extra linebackers’

During an interview with Tucson Sentinel in mid-March, the chief of Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector Sean McGoffin said while immigration is the “headlines,” his agents are also working to stop narcotics, weapons and money. 

“All of these things that are going on in our world, people don’t realize how important for us to be out there,” McGoffin said. 

Smugglers, he said, treat people as a commodity and are responsible for a lot of the deaths in the desert as people die from exposure—”whether it’s the cold or the heat, either way, those are two of the most miserable ways to perish, and so we want to go everything we can, to go after these individuals who are causing harm.” 

He added drug smugglers are trying to get narcotics into the country, which could kill thousands of Americans from overdoses. 

“Our job is all hands on deck with whatever resources we’re given that support,” he said. This includes the military who can heighten agents awareness along the southwest border and “make sure that we can interdict those threats,” McGoffin said. 

“And it is an emergency,” McGoffin said. “There are things going on this country. Just because we don’t have 2,000 people on this other side looking at us doesn’t mean there isn’t a threat.” 

McGoffin credited the change to the increasing prosecutions filed against people who cross the U.S.-Mexico border without authorization. Last September, the Biden administration published new rules making it more difficult for people to seek asylum,  reinforcing a policy that began in September. As part of this, those who are ordered removed may face a five-year bar. 

McGoffin said after being able to apply consequences “changed the tide.” 

“That’s the real game-changer, right?” he said. “Having a degree of certainty that you are actually going to be arrested and then expeditiously removed from the United States has changed hearts and minds throughout the world.” He said prosecutions are a “big deterrent” because people are now worried they might spend money, time and energy to arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border only to be sent home.

McGough said the military can provide more “eyes and ears” along the border, likening the added soldiers to “extra linebackers” who can reduce the spaces where illegal crossings might occur. 

“So, until we can make sure that is not coming across—with the greatest degree of certainty that we possibly can have—and there’s no threat coming across that border, it’s all hands on deck,” McGoffin said. “We’re all front loaded and ready to be up, be out there on that border, taking care of business.” 

Interior Department transfers 110,000 acres to U.S. Army

Since his inauguration in January, President Donald Trump has launched a barrage of executive orders designed to clamp down on the border, part of a wider and often hostile campaign against immigrants in the country.

Hours into his term, Trump declared that “America’s sovereignty is under attack.”

“Our southern border is overrun by cartels, criminal gangs, known terrorists, human traffickers, smugglers, unvetted military-age males from foreign adversaries, and illicit narcotics that harm Americans, including America,” Trump said. 

His order surged military efforts to the border, including Arizona, where several military units, including infantry, military police, and Stryker brigades—who can use their eight-wheeled armored vehicles to patrol the border with powerful cameras—were sent to Yuma and Ft. Huachuca. 

And, just last week, Trump ordered federal officials to transfer the Roosevelt Reservation—a 60-foot easement of federal land along the southern edges of California, Arizona, and New Mexico—to the military, declaring them National Defense Areas.

Under the memorandum, the Interior Department will allow the Defense Department to have jurisdiction over portions of the easement, excluding Native American reservations such as the Tohono O’odham Nation. By creating a military buffer zone that stretches across the U.S.-Mexico border in those three states, the order means any migrant crossing into the United States would be trespassing on a military base, allowing active-duty troops to hold them until Border Patrol agents arrive.

A few days later, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum ceded nearly 110,000 acres of land in New Mexico to the Army for the next three years. Burgum said the handover is “intended to safeguard sensitive natural and cultural resources in the region while enabling the Department of the Army to support U.S. Border Patrol operations in securing the border and preventing illegal immigration.”

“Securing our border and protecting our nation’s resources go hand in hand,” Burgum said. “The American people gave President Trump a mandate to make America safe and strong again. This transfer reflects Interior’s commitment to public safety, national security and responsible stewardship of our public lands.”

However, while the easement only covers 60 feet, a U.S.Bureau of Land Management map shows the “emergency withdrawal area” extends 2 to 3.5 miles from New Mexico’s international border, except in designated wilderness study areas, the Arizona Daily Star reported. 

It remains unclear how the Army will manage public access under the change. However, other National Defense Areas in Arizona include the Barry M. Goldwater bombing range, the Yuma Proving Grounds, and Davis-Monthan Air Force Base — areas where the public cannot go. 

Over the weekend, Gen. Dan Caine, the newly installed chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, headed to Ft. Huachuca for a “briefing on border security operations.”

However, while military units are deployed in Southern Arizona, there a few signs of them across much of the border. 

U.S. soldiers have been photographed with their Strykers near Douglas, and some units installed additional concertina—or ‘razor—wire on border wall panels. Some helicopter crews are flying overhead, but the larger push into Arizona’s borderlands hasn’t happened, yet. 

Over Easter, a small paddock with a half-dozen Humvees — the military’s well-worn trucks — sat in the grasslands in the San Rafael Valley. Two military contractors guarded the vehicles as night fell, and just beyond the area, all-terrain vehicles raced along Montezuma Canyon Road, while campers enjoying the Easter weekend lit small fires or strung their sites with fairy lights.

Construction for new wall may begin in May

CBP has laid out a plan to build nearly 25 miles of new border wall through the San Rafael Valley, cleaving through a region environmental groups called a “biological hotspot,” the Sentinel reported on April 11. 

Under the plan, CBP contractors will begin at Border Monument 102—just south of the Coronado National Monument—and build 24.7 miles of 30-foot-high bollard wall. During the previous Trump administration, contractors carved their way up the mountainside to the east, cutting a switchback road for future construction, but that effort was abandoned and the road is in shambles. 

“Militarizing wild lands under the guise of national security will sacrifice ecosystems and wildlife to a manufactured emergency, turning public lands into designated war zones instead of preserving them for future generations,” said Russ McSpadden, Southwest conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Trump’s order is part of a series of reckless actions that will do immense damage to some of the most beautiful wild places in the borderlands.

Santa Cruz County Sheriff David Hathaway said construction will begin in May, the Patagonia Regional Times reported. Contractors will begin moving border wall sections from a yard in Benson to a site east of Lochiel, about 19 miles west of Border Monument 102, according to Hathaway. CBP has yet to announce which company has won the bid to build this new wall, though officials will likely choose one of four companies who built previous sections. 

As part of his Jan. 20 edict, Trump also set a deadline ordering Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to submit a joint report about the “conditions at the southern border of the United States and any recommendations regarding additional actions that may be necessary to obtain complete operational control of the southern border, including whether to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807.” 

The Insurrection Act allows the president to use active-duty forces or federalized National Guard troops to suppress a “rebellion” and suspends the Posse Comitatus Act—which limits the military’s role in domestic law enforcement. 

The deadline passed over the weekend, and thus far, neither Hegseth or Noem have pressed for the use of the law. But the possibility still looms.