ROMA, Texas \u2013 Standing on a high bank of the Rio Grande, Army Lt. Col. Ray Richards points to a stretch of river that was, until recently, one of the busiest spots for illegal border crossings from Mexico.<\/p>\n
But on a recent afternoon, the area is quiet. American soldiers gather at a border monitoring post in Roma, Texas<\/a>, where an infantry vehicle with camouflage netting sits between houses. A Blackhawk helicopter drops soldiers onto an island in the river, while U.S. Border Patrol agents breeze by on fan-propelled boats. <\/p>\n \u201cAt any given time, there would be multiple rafts full of people trying to get to this side,\u201d Richards said of the area before U.S. forces made it a priority last year.<\/p>\n The Army has been inviting reporters to the Rio Grande Valley as it deploys hundreds more soldiers to the region this month by shifting some of the thousands of troops already serving along the 2,000-mile border<\/a>. U.S. officials said the troop surge follows signs of elevated activity from drug cartels<\/a> and has been accompanied by increased cooperation from the Mexican military. The U.S. Coast Guard said it recently encountered gunfire from the Mexican side of the river, prompting the Americans to fire back.<\/p>\n In this small patch at the southern edge of the United States, a slow saga is playing out \u2014 a curious mix of policing, policy and politics.<\/p>\n Some question a troop surge just weeks before midterm elections <\/p>\n While Republicans face increasing headwinds because of President Donald Trump\u2019s<\/a> unpopularity, persistently high prices and the fallout from the war in Iran<\/a>, border security has remained a relative bright spot in Trump’s polling numbers, with about half of Americans saying they approve<\/a> of his performance there. <\/p>\n But some experts have questioned the need for such a large military presence. They suggest it’s less about effective strategy and more about political theater. <\/p>\n Illegal crossings have plummeted due in large part to asylum restrictions<\/a> that began before Trump returned to the White House. Meanwhile, a large percentage of the fentanyl, cocaine and heroin seized along the border was being smuggled in cars and trucks passing through checkpoints<\/a>, not the areas in between.<\/p>\n David Shirk, a University of San Diego political science professor, said the Trump administration wants to remind voters it’s been very aggressive on border security. <\/p>\n \u201cI don’t dispute there\u2019s some benefit to having personnel in areas at risk for people smuggling and drug trafficking,\u201d Shirk said. \u201cBut the vast majority of that is now happening at ports of entry.\u201d <\/p>\n Dessa Bergen-Cico, a professor of public health at Syracuse University who studies drug trafficking, said street prices for cocaine and fentanyl are still low, suggesting the drug flow remains unimpeded. <\/p>\n But Army Maj. Gen. Curtis Taylor, who commands the military’s southern border task force, said the work has been vital and effective, particularly for targeting human trafficking.<\/p>\n The moral argument for the Army’s mission is \u201cdismantling this marketplace of human trafficking that is bringing people into the border,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cAn added benefit of that is there\u2019s an awful lot of drugs moving with that human trafficking.\u201d <\/p>\n Efforts to secure a former epicenter of illegal crossings <\/p>\n Roma, a city of about 10,000 people, lacks a border wall in some places because homes sit close to the steep slopes along the Rio Grande. Directly across the water is Miguel Alem\u00e1n<\/a>, a town in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas that\u2019s been plagued by decades of cartel violence. From Roma, it’s a football field’s distance across the river at best and much less in some places. <\/p>\n In 2021, Roma became a center of illegal crossings when thousands of families and unaccompanied children arrived each day to seek asylum. Border crossings fell sharply after President Joe Biden introduced severe asylum restrictions in 2024 and dipped after Trump suspended asylum at the border.<\/p>\n