Trump putting troops on border was game changer, San Diego sector chief says: ‘Force multiplier’
SAN DIEGO, Calif. — U.S. military personnel sent by President Donald Trump to the southern border to assist in security operations have had a profound impact on the number of illegal crossing attempts, a veteran border agent tells Fox News Digital. “It’s a force multiplier,” San Diego Sector acting Chief Patrol Agent Jeffrey Stalnaker said of the military assistance at the border in an interview with Fox News Digital. “It assists us to accomplish our mission.” At the San Diego border sector, traditionally one of the busiest crossing areas of the U.S. border with Mexico, hundreds of service members from the Army, Marines, and Navy have been deployed to assist U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents over the last several weeks. BORDER AREA BUSTLING UNDER BIDEN NOW QUIET UNDER TRUMP, SAYS VETERANS GROUP: ‘AMAZING DIFFERENCE’ The deployments, which were ordered just days after President Trump took office, have helped put an almost sudden stop to the record-setting illegal crossings seen in recent years. The number of southern border apprehensions in February hit lows not seen since the year 2000, according to CBP data, while CBP agent encounters with illegal migrants have also fallen sharply, with the agency recording just 30,000 encounters in February, compared to the over 130,000 recorded during the same time period in 2023 and 2024. According to Stalnaker, the military forces currently assisting at the border have had a lot to do with the recent success. “It’s not just walls and c-wire, it’s also our weather roads. It gives us access, quick access, to be able to move our agents … to be able to respond to an event, a law enforcement event,” he said. The nearly 500 Marines operating at the border as part of Task Force Sapper have helped CBP by reinforcing existing border barriers with additional protection, including the welding of razor wire that has been strategically placed to slow down any potential crossings and give CBP agents time to react. CALIF POLITICIAN PATCHES GAPING BORDER HOLE WITH 400 FEET OF RAZOR WIRE USING HER OWN CASH “We are the engineers that are conducting the construction down on the southern border in order to reinforce the existing primary and secondary barrier that exists in the San Diego sector,” Lt. Col Tyrone Barrion, the commanding officer of Task Force Sapper, told Fox News Digital, noting that the Marines’ efforts have created an “obstacle that disrupts any type of activity that tries to cross over the top or through the barrier.” “That allows more reaction time for border patrol,” he added. Barrion said that the Marines plan on continuing their efforts from the Pacific coastline of San Diego until about 20 miles inland, where they will then tackle a break in the existing barrier caused by the area’s rough terrain. Joining the Marines are multiple companies of Army engineers and military police officers based out of Ft. Campbell, Kentucky, who have fanned out across the landscape to help with surveillance and detection. While the soldiers don’t intervene to stop illegal crossings themselves, a CBP spokesperson told Fox News Digital that the troops have become the eyes and ears of agents, taking some tasks off their plate and allowing them to quickly and accurately respond to potential crossings. On Otay Mountain, which lies southeast of San Diego and overlooks the border near the Mexican city of Tijuana, Army soldiers perched high above a popular crossing valley helped operate a CBP surveillance station that can detect the potential movements of illegal crossings for miles in the surrounding area. While CBP agents are trained and typically tasked with operating the equipment, the help of Army soldiers has allowed CBP to make more efficient use of their limited resources. Facing limited manning, the CBP spokesperson said that the troops at the border have allowed agents to focus their attention on responding to crossers and making apprehensions, all done with the assistance of troops who are in constant contact with their CBP counterparts. Those Army forces have contributed to the drastic turnaround at the once-busy border sector. “They’re a great partner,” Stalnaker said. “We enjoy having them out here.”
Trump’s 9th week in office set to continue whirlwind actions, expected conversation with Putin
President Donald Trump’s ninth week in office is expected to include a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin as the nations inch closer to reportedly securing a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia. “The president uses the timeframe weeks, and I don’t disagree with him. I am really hopeful that we’re going to see some real progress here,” U.S. special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff said on CNN on Sunday. “Nobody expected progress this fast. This is a highly, very complicated situation, and yet we’re bridging the gap between two sides. So, lots of things that remain to be discussed, but I think the two presidents are going to have a really good and positive discussion this week.” Witkoff’s remarks come after U.S. and Ukrainian officials agreed to the terms of a potential ceasefire with Russia during a meeting in Saudi Arabia last week. Witkoff subsequently met with Putin in Moscow on Thursday, when the pair held “positive” and “solution-based” discussions. “Before this visit, there was another visit, and before that visit, the two sides were miles apart,” Witkoff added. “The two sides are, today, a lot closer. We had some really positive results coming out of the Saudi Arabia discussion led by our national security advisor, Mike Waltz, and our secretary of state, Marco Rubio.” TRUMP, PUTIN CALL EXPECTED THIS WEEK, AS ADMIN EDGES CLOSER TO RUSSIA-UKRAINE CEASEFIRE DEAL: WITKOFF A pair of American astronauts who have been left on the International Space Station (ISS) for nine months are in the midst of returning home and could reach Earth later this week. ‘WE HAVE NEVER BEEN THIS CLOSE TO PEACE’ SINCE RUSSIA INVADED UKRAINE, LEAVITT TELLS REPORTERS Astronauts Suni Williams and Barry Wilmore traveled to the space station in June of last year for what was intended to be an eight-day mission, but it devolved into a long-term stay after their spacecraft malfunctioned. Tech billionaire and Trump ally Elon Musk launched a rescue crew to bring the astronauts home over the weekend through his company SpaceX. The SpaceX team reached the space station overnight Saturday, inching the astronauts closer to their expected return to Earth later this week. Trump has railed against former President Biden for not rescuing the astronauts during his administration, telling the media earlier this month that Biden “left them alone” in space because he was “embarrassed by what happened.” “The most incompetent president in our history has allowed that to happen to you, but this president won’t let that happen,” the president continued at the time. The Trump administration is in the midst of mass deportation efforts, including deporting Tren de Aragua gang members under a wartime law invoked by Trump last week. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ordered the Trump administration to halt its deportations of illegal immigrants under the act on Saturday, ordering planes carrying migrants to return to the U.S. ‘ALIEN’ ENCOUNTER: ISS CREW MEMBER PLAYS JOKE AS SPACEX TEAM ARRIVES The Alien Enemies Act of 1798 allows deportation of natives and citizens of an enemy nation without a hearing and has been invoked three times before, including, during the War of 1812, World War I and World War II. Boasberg set a hearing for Friday regarding the deportation efforts, teeing up another court battle over Trump’s immigration policies. NASA’S STUCK ASTRONAUTS WELCOME REPLACEMENTS WHO ARRIVED TO SPACE STATION ON SPACEX CAPSULE In the meantime, the Trump administration has already flown hundreds of Tren de Aragua gang members to El Salvador, where the nation’s president agreed to house the individuals in a notoriously locked-down prison designed to handle cartel and gang members. “Today, the first 238 members of the Venezuelan criminal organization, Tren de Aragua, arrived in our country. They were immediately transferred to CECOT, the Terrorism Confinement Center, for a period of one year (renewable),” El Salvador President Nayib Bukele posted to X on Sunday morning, accompanied by video footage of planes on a tarmac. EL SALVADOR TAKES IN HUNDREDS OF VENEZUELAN GANG MEMBERS FROM US, EVEN AS JUDGE MOVES TO BLOCK DEPORTATIONS Bukele responded to news of Boasberg’s order on X, remarking, “Oopsie… too late,” accompanied by a laughing emoji. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Trump is anticipated to have another busy week back in the Oval Office, which follows him signing 89 executive orders since Jan. 20 – marking more executive orders signed in just months than any of his predecessors signed their entire first years in office, stretching back to President Jimmy Carter. Fox News Digital’s Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.
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COVID anniversary shines new light on effort to support doctors’ mental health
This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255). As the fifth anniversary of COVID-19 lockdowns approaches, bipartisan lawmakers and medical professionals across the country are rallying behind a bill that would address a growing crisis in the healthcare field. Dr. Lorna Breen was chief of the ER department at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. Known by colleagues as a tireless worker who cared about patients and protocol, Breen committed suicide while on a short break in Virginia in the midst of the pandemic to get a break from the high-pressure world of emergency medical care. A New York Times story quoted Breen’s father as calling her death a “casualty” of the pandemic and said she had no history of mental illness, but had seemed “detached” as of late. Proponents of the Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Reauthorization Act told Fox News Digital that the mental strain, burnout, and stress of working in a high-pressure, life-saving field demand stronger support systems. A recent study from a North Carolina healthcare group showed that more than half of doctor-respondents said they wouldn’t go into the primary care field if they could “do it all over again.” According to its proponents, the Lorna Breen Act provides billions of dollars in resources to help prevent suicide, burnout, and mental and behavioral health conditions among healthcare professionals. Two longtime ER physicians who are leading the charge on the nongovernmental side of things spoke with Fox News Digital this week. Dr. Randy Pilgrim – chief medical officer for SCP Health – and Dr. Bentley Tate, the emergency room company’s chief wellness officer – both have decades of experience working in the high-pressure field and said that now, as the U.S. looks back at the COVID-19 pandemic, is the time to bring this issue to the fore. SCP Health works across 35 states and is a leading voice on mental healthcare for physicians, they jointly said. Doctor wellness must be a major priority, and is often overlooked, Pilgrim said, noting that patients come to doctors to better their own health, and that it is, rightly for the patient, a one-way street in that regard. “Patients can’t be faulted for the fact that when they come to their clinician, their physician or other clinician, they really are thinking mostly about their own health and how they can improve that,” he said. AMERICANS SPLIT ON COVID 5 YEARS AFTER THE PANDEMIC “For many, many centuries there has been this phrase ‘Physician, heal thyself’, which is variably interpreted. But in the context of this, it means the healthier the doctor is, the more available they are for the patients themselves.” “So, as mental health issues became more and more prevalent, more and more transparent, and more and more acknowledged that the stresses of the healthcare workforce are significant. It became very clear that destigmatizing that as well as providing resources to help, that was a very real phenomenon,” Pilgrim added. “Patients don’t come to us saying, ‘Doctor, are you OK?’ But at the end of the day, they want to know that we are [well] and it’s our responsibility to be that way.” Mental health strains on physicians were largely an “underground phenomenon” until COVID-19 put physicians’ well-being into the forefront of the news. During the pandemic, gurneys were rolled out in front of overburdened urban hospitals, and physicians, both rural and otherwise, were working long shifts, resulting in burnout and strain. “Physician suicide is the far end and very unfortunate far end of that spectrum,” Tate said. LINGERING LUNG DISORDERS 5 YEARS AFTER COVID “But there are so many people who are frustrated, who are weary. And the reality is, we all lose when a physician retires ten years before they thought they were – or 10 years into their career, with so many years of training [goes and] transitions into where they’re not seeing patients directly, but some other aspect of health care because they just got so frustrated or worn down or frankly, in a bad mental state.” When doctors step away from patients for such personal reasons, the entire healthcare system loses, Tate said. When physicians are well and in the right frame of mind, patients benefit. Pilgrim, who has also worked directly to push for Lorna Breen Act legislation, added that there is bipartisan acknowledgment that U.S. doctors need Congress’ full support. “At the end of the day, people realize this is about helping clinicians, but mainly so that they can help patients – But this is a patient-centered act. So, that’s really easy to unify around,” he said. With the advent of DOGE scrutinizing every dollar the feds spend, there is also a new focus on how to pay for things like this act, Pilgrim added. “People are looking for relatively small amounts of dollars that will have a relatively large and outsized impact,” he said. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “And this actually is another thing that unifies congressmen and women is that this is a relatively small money in the grand scheme of things. And if you can impact just a single physician and make them him or her better, the hundreds to thousands of patients that benefit from that becomes an exponential impact.” Sens. Tim Kaine, D-Va. and Roger Marshall, R-Kan. – a doctor himself – are leading the Senate version of the bill, but did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., who is joined by Reps. Jennifer Kiggans, R-Va., and Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., on the House version said Thursday that the act is truly bipartisan and that she will work hard to pass it so that “doctors, nurses, physicians, and all healthcare providers can take care of themselves as they care for their patients.” “Healthcare professionals dedicate their lives to serving their patients, often at the expense of their
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