Two Marines deployed to assist in the Trump administration’s southern border crackdown were killed in a vehicle accident after their car dropped into a 10-foot ditch and rolled over Tuesday along a narrow highway in Santa Teresa, New Mexico.
The Marines were driving along a two-lane highway in a civilian jeep when they tried to pass another vehicle and tumbled into a ditch known as “Snake Canyon,” a hangout spot for both smugglers and snakes, and slammed into a wall of solid rock, sources familiar with the accident told The Post.
A Border Patrol agent who tried to save the service members “was covered head to toe” in blood after responding to the gruesome scene, a source said.
“That area out there is treacherous,” said a source.
The US Northern Command has yet to release the names of the victims as it notifies family and probes the accident, the military said in a statement.
“It would be a horrible place to go off the road because the canyon is right off the shoulder. It has concrete tunnels that run underneath the highway and we have sensors there because illegal aliens hide under it and then get picked up by a load vehicle,” said another source.
The pair were airlifted to a nearby hospital before they succumbed to their injuries and a third service member involved in the incident is in critical but stable condition, sources said.
The Trump administration has deployed thousands of additional troops to the southern border to stop the flow of illegal migrants and illicit drugs.
The White House also recently authorized the military to take control of federal land along the border to build an additional wall and enhance detection technology.
As a result, illegal border crossings have fallen to their lowest levels on record, with federal agents encountering roughly 7,100 migrants in March, fewer than what they saw in the first two days of March 2024, according to Customs and Border Protection.