Mexican Military Troops Mistakenly Enter U.S. While Chasing Traffickers, Confront Aid Workers

A group of 18 heavily-armed Mexican soldiers reportedly crossed into U.S. territory near Hachita, New Mexico, earlier this week while pursuing suspected traffickers, according to two American volunteers who encountered them. The pair said the soldiers surrounded the pair before realizing they had crossed the U.S.-Mexico border into American territory.

Abbey Carpenter and James Holeman, members of Battalion Search and Rescue—a volunteer group that searches for missing migrants— told Border Report that the encounter took place Monday at a remote desert trail. The pair documented the incident with photos and videos, which they shared with the outlet. Carpenter said she only became concerned once she showed the soldiers her GPS map indicating they were on U.S. soil.

"I never felt threatened," Carpenter said. "When I got nervous was when I showed them that they were in the United States... That's when I got nervous, like, 'Oh, we shouldn't have our phones out, taking pictures of them in U.S. soil.'"

Video footage shows a military truck approaching the Americans, followed by soldiers dismounting with rifles. A separate photograph depicts a white pickup marked "Guardia Nacional" with soldiers standing watch.

Holeman said the soldiers asked him what he was doing in Mexico and claimed they were searching for drug and weapons traffickers. The Americans had earlier seen two damaged vehicles with Mexican plates on a nearby trail. When shown their location on a phone app, the soldiers reportedly realized their mistake and turned south toward the border.

The area where the incident occurred lacks significant border infrastructure. Unlike other stretches of the New Mexico border marked by steel bollard fencing, this section is delineated by a wire fence with unlocked gates, Holeman said.

The Mexican National Guard's garrison commander in Ciudad Juárez referred questions about the incident to the agency's headquarters in Mexico City. The U.S. Border Patrol has not yet commented.

In February, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum deployed 10,000 National Guard troops to the U.S. border, responding to pressure from President Donald Trump to combat illegal migration and fentanyl trafficking. Juárez alone received more than 1,600 troops as part of the deployment.