Two U.S. service members involved in operations near the border with Mexico were killed in a vehicle accident on Tuesday morning, and another was seriously injured, the military said.
The cause of the accident near Santa Teresa, N.M., is under investigation, the military’s Northern Command said in a statement on social media. Santa Teresa is on the outskirts of El Paso, Tex.
The military said the three had been deployed to support Joint Task Force Southern Border, which last month assumed leadership of military operations at that border as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to curtail illegal crossings.
The military did not release the names of the service members who were killed. The three people were Marines, according to a U.S. military official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters.
Thousands of troops have been sent to the southwestern border in recent months, following President Trump’s order to increase the military’s role in stemming the flow of migrants into the United States.
Mr. Trump declared an emergency at the border on the first day of his second term and promised to send U.S. military forces to confront migrants, drug cartels and smugglers. About 1,600 Marines and Army soldiers were later sent to secure the border, joining 2,500 Army reservists already there.
Another wave of troops was sent in February and March, bringing the total number of active-duty troops on the border to about 9,000, according to Defense Department officials.
Vehicle accidents are a common cause of death in the U.S. military. From 2010 to 2019, at least 123 service members were killed as a result of 3,753 accidents involving tactical vehicles in noncombat situations, according to the Government Accountability Office, an independent watchdog agency for the federal government.
