EAGLE PASS, Texas—Vice President JD Vance visited Shelby Park at the Mexican border on March 5 to tout the plummeting number of illegal immigrants crossing into the country under the Trump administration.
With the municipal park—known as the epicenter of illegal immigration in Texas—as his backdrop, Vance said the country saw millions of illegal immigrants and a record increase in crime committed by those staying in the country unlawfully under the Biden administration.
Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott seized the park from federal authorities last year in a showdown with the Biden administration after thousands of illegal immigrants were processed there by federal agents.
“The good news is, as President [Donald] Trump said last night at the State of the Union, it turns out we didn’t need new laws,” Vance said. “We didn’t need fancy legislation. We just needed a new president of the United States, and thank God that’s exactly what we have.”
Part of Trump’s strategy has been to expand the arrests of people in the United States illegally and cancel programs that gave some permission to stay. Completing the wall along the southwest border that was started during his first term has also been a priority, and Vance said that the president hopes to finish the wall by the end of his term. Border czar Tom Homan has prioritized apprehending and deporting illegal immigrants who have committed crimes while in the United States and those with deportation orders.
Vance was scheduled to tour the border, visit a detention facility, and hold a roundtable discussion with local, state, and federal officials, according to the White House.
He, joined by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, talked about how border security affects national security.
Gabbard said the border crisis created concerns because of potential terrorists being released into the country. Some of the tactics used by Islamist terrorists were being employed by Mexican cartels, she added.
Last month, the State Department designated the following Mexican-based cartels as foreign terrorist organizations and specially designated global terrorists: the Sinaloa, Gulf, United, Northeast, and Jalisco New Generation cartels and La Nueva Familia Michoacana.
In addition, the La Mara Salvatrucha gang, commonly known as MS-13, and Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua were designated as terrorist organizations.
Trump’s national security team was working together to “ensure a safe, free, and prosperous society for Americans,” Gabbard said.
She said 4,000 illegal immigrants used a network affiliated with the ISIS terrorist group to cross the border under President Joe Biden.
More than 100 suspected terrorists were arrested in 2024. Only eight were deported or remain in custody. The rest were released into the country, she said.
Vance noted that the advanced drone technology being used by the cartels required a military response.
“The Defense Department has assets that we can bring to bear, not just troops, not just surveillance, not just equipment—but actual planning capabilities that enhance what Border Patrol is already doing,” Hegseth said.
Hegseth said the number of illegal crossings at the southern border has dropped by 98 percent, but “100 percent operational control” has yet to occur.
Arrests for illegal crossings from Mexico dropped before Trump took office after the Biden administration reinstated some of his predecessor’s border policies. The Trump administration has been deporting illegal immigrants on military planes and has sent the most violent ones to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
Last weekend, Hegseth approved orders to send a large portion of an Army Stryker brigade and a general support aviation battalion to the border. About 3,000 troops are expected to deploy in the coming weeks.
Troops are responsible for detection and monitoring along the border but don’t interact with migrants attempting to cross illegally. Instead, they alert border agents, who then take the migrants into custody.
When fielding questions from reporters, Vance said the United States had no plans to launch an “invasion of Mexico” to confront the cartels.
Mexico’s government needed to demonstrate a “sustained commitment” to stop fentanyl coming into the country to avoid tariffs, Vance said.
