U.S. Marines with 1st Combat Engineer Battalion, 1st Marine Division, affix concertina wire to engineer stakes, with the assistance of vertical mast boom lifts, on the barrier along the southern border near San Ysidro, California, on March 2, 2025. U.S. Northern Command is working together with the Department of Homeland Security to augment U.S. Customs and Border Protection along the southern border with additional military forces. (U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Dominic Atlas)
"Once the new administration came in, we are able to exercise and provide consequences to the greatest extent, which then gets [illegal migrants] either jail time and/or provide them a repatriation to the country where they began their journey to the United States," Stalnaker said.
"We were in a posture of catch and release… we would apprehend [illegal immigrants], take them to our soft site facility, we would run checks on them, and then try to get them out of our facility as quickly as possible… release them with the notice to appear to go see an immigration judge," he added. "The change now is we catch them, still take them to our soft side facility, however they are not being released, we are trying to find every consequence possible and deliver that consequence to them."
The shift to a quieter border can also be credited to the deployment of U.S. military forces to the border, Stalnaker noted, pointing to the hundreds of members of the Marines, Army and Navy who have been assigned to the San Diego sector alone shortly after Trump took office.
"We also have our DOD partners with us here," Stalnaker said. "They’re a great partner, we enjoy having them out here, and the help they’re providing to us assists us with our mission."
Nearly 500 Marines have been deployed to the San Diego sector as part of Task Force Sapper, helping reinforce existing order barriers with the added protection of razor wire. The Marines will continue to help improve the border area east of San Diego, most notably where a gap in this existing structure exists.
Army soldiers out of Ft. Campbell, Kentucky, man U.S. Customs and Border Protection surveillance equipment. (Michael Lee: Fox News Digital)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection surveillance equipment currently being manned by Army soldiers out of Ft. Campbell, Kentucky. (Michael Lee: Fox News Digital)
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The all-hands-on-deck approach since the start of the Trump administration has contributed to the successful missions, Stalnaker said.
"It’s a force multiplier, it assists us to accomplish our mission," Stalnaker said. "And it’s not just DOD, there are additional federal partners, state and local partners, we have extremely good partnerships here in the San Diego sector that act as force multipliers. And it’s that whole og government approach that it takes for us to accomplish our mission."
Michael Lee is a writer for Fox News. Prior to joining Fox News, Michael worked for the Washington Examiner, Bongino.com, and Unbiased America. He has covered politics for more than eight years.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-policy-border-jumpers-empowers-use-maximum-consequences-border-agent-tells-fox