Mexico has deployed 500 soldiers to its border with Texas after the United States reported U.S. personnel coming under gunfire, President Claudia Sheinbaum said Monday. The troops were posted in Tamaulipas state in an area where the rival Northeast and Gulf drug cartels are fighting for control. The United States classified both as foreign terrorist organizations in February 2025. In her routine morning press conference, Sheinbaum said the United States reported that it took “shots from the Mexican border.” But she added that the Trump administration provided no evidence. Mexico offered a troop deployment anyway along the Rio Grande, she said. U.S. Ambassador Ronald Johnson wrote on X that U.S. Coast Guard personnel “were fired upon.” He said the newly deployed Mexican troops will communicate directly with U.S. forces. “Together, we intend to patrol both sides of our shared border, protect our communities, and make it more difficult for criminal and terrorist organizations to operate,” Johnson wrote. Since returning to power in 2025, President Donald Trump has pressured Mexico to crack down on drug trafficking and illegal migration moving across the shared border. Trump has offered U.S. military support but Sheinbaum has said no several times.
