EL PASO, TEXAS — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and border czar Tom Homan on Monday visited soldiers deployed to the U.S. border with Mexico.

Secretary Hegseth was in Sunland Park, New Mexico, and visited with some of the 1,500 soldiers President Donald Trump deployed to the border. Those troops joined the 2,500 soldiers already in place there under former President Joe Biden.

“What they do is relieve Border Patrol and to have the opportunity to actually do the interdiction, they’re calling in observation to Border Patrol, who then interdict. It’s a process that, in the past, Tom was telling me, might take 30 minutes,” Hegseth said.

The increased military presence is part of a larger crackdown the Trump administration ordered. It includes mass deportation flights and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids.

According to NBC News, however, ICE already had to release some detained migrants with ankle monitors instead. That’s because there’s either no place to put them or countries refuse to take them back.

Video courtesy of KVIA.