SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — Ten months ago, Osprey aircraft and personnel carriers dropped off a small contingency of Marines in San Diego’s Otay Mesa in what was reminiscent of a war movie.
Department of Defense production crews made the Marines’ arrival seem like a Hollywood production.
Just as the Marines arrived with a bang, it appears they have left the area with a whimper, quietly slipping out of San Diego without much fanfare.
The Marines were originally deployed by President Trump to the southern border along with another 8,000 active military personnel to help Border Patrol suppress illegal crossings into the United States.
Initially, the Marines sent to San Diego were based at the Imperial Beach Border Patrol Station.
Later, some were moved to another Customs and Border Protection facility in Campo, California about 60 miles to the east.
Their orders were to bolster agents patrolling the border providing logistical support.
They were not to engage migrants or perform apprehensions.
Most of their time was spent putting up concertina wire on border barriers to prevent migrants from scaling down the fences.
They did this from the ocean all the way to the mountains along the San Diego County-Mexico border.
A Marine Corps spokesperson confirmed the Marines have ended their mission in the San Diego region and are now back at Camp Pendleton, although he would not elaborate when they left and why they were pulled out.
People who live in Campo told Border Report they have not seen any Marines in the area “for weeks.”
The Imperial Beach Border Patrol Station is also devoid of any Marines, their equipment or vehicles.
One agent said they left “about a month ago.”
A Joint Task Force Southern Border spokesperson stated there are Marines still very much in the San Diego area actively helping CBP personnel.
Through a statement, he stated:
“Recent shifts in Marine Corps activity in the San Diego Sector as part of Joint Task Force Southern Border represent a planned, coordinated transition, not a withdrawal.
The 1st Combat Engineer Battalion at Imperial Beach successfully completed its mission, which included multiple construction projects and barrier reinforcements requested by U.S. Border Patrol. The absence of visible engineering work in San Diego simply means the initial construction projects achieved their desired goals.
The unit then conducted training for its replacement, Combat Logistics Battalion 15 (CLB-15) at Campo, Calif., formally executed a Transfer of Authority (TOA), and redeployed to Camp Pendleton. CLB-15 was strategically repositioned to continue supporting Border Patrol’s similar priorities in the Yuma Sector.
Separately, the 7th Marine Regiment replaced the U.S. Army’s 89th Military Police Brigade last month, taking over oversight of operations across the San Diego, El Centro, and Yuma sectors. Overall, this transition represents an increase of approximately 600 Marines in the area.
Hundreds of Marines remain active in the San Diego Sector, conducting patrols, monitoring, and detection duties in support of Customs and Border Protection and the Department of Homeland Security to protect the territorial integrity of the United States and achieve 100% operational control of the southern border.”
In June, the state of California sued the federal government over the deployment of the National Guard and active-duty Marines in Los Angeles.
The lawsuit claimed the federal government was using troops for civilian law enforcement, something that is unconstitutional, saying it would create a dangerous precedent for using military forces domestically.
The state secured a permanent injunction against the federal deployment when a federal judge ruled in its favor last September.