Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth presented the Mexican Border Defense Medal to 50 U.S. service members on July 27, recognizing troops who deployed to the southern border since January 2025, including Marine Corps personnel receiving the honor for the first time.
“From Day 1, operationally, this department, this building, these services rushed, surged down to the border to stop the invasion of our southern border, which is truly what it was,” Hegseth said. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell announced the event on X, writing that “these warriors answered the call and secured our southern border.”
The secretary noted that since January 2025, American troops from all services have worked to gain and then maintain “100% operational control” of the southern border, stopping both drug trafficking and illegal immigration. “That’s why, for over a year, there’s been effectively zero illegals crossing our border, especially on the national defense areas,” Hegseth said. “We decided our soil, our homeland, will be defended, and we will utilize our troops in those places to do it and give them maximum authorities to ensure that we stop the invasion of our southwest border.”
The medal itself is a reissued design rather than a new creation. The Mexican Border Defense Medal, established in August 2025, replicates the Mexican Border Service Medal first issued in 1918. Hegseth compared the revival to the department’s own recent renaming. “It’s a restoration, it’s a reestablishment,” Hegseth said. “This Mexican Border Defense Medal was established in 1918 to stop other incursions and invasions. And so, we’re not creating something new, we actually revived the exact same medal from 1918 to be given to all of you today, as a reflection that this service is an extension. We stand on the shoulders of other great Americans who defended this nation.”
The 50 recipients included 35 soldiers, 14 Marines and one sailor. Hegseth said the group represented a much larger population of troops who served in the same mission. “Every single soldier, Marine, and one sailor, seated here represents thousands of others who have done this mission on our southwest border and are doing it right now,” Hegseth said.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller also addressed the recipients, describing the initial border deployment as an unusually rapid mobilization. “I remember distinctly, in the hours after the inauguration, the airlift had already begun,” Miller said. “Massive assets were being mobilized and moved down to the southern border. There has never been in history, to my knowledge or awareness, a more radical day-and-night shift in the security posture of a country than what happened to that border between Jan. 20 and Jan. 21.”
Miller tied the deployment to the administration’s designation of cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. “When you think about threats to the lives and security of the American people, there’s a reason why President Trump designated the cartels operating just meters from you on the other side of that border as foreign terrorist organizations,” Miller said, adding that the designation now places the cartels in the same category as ISIS and al-Qaida.
Acting Army Chief of Staff Gen. Christopher LaNeve said more than 9,000 soldiers assigned to Joint Task Force Southern Border carried out 99,245 detection and monitoring operations and 65 named operations, achieving a 97 percent interdiction effectiveness rate. Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Eric Smith said Marines conducted more than 18,000 patrols, processed nearly 10,000 individual detections, identified and repaired more than 500 border wall breaches, and completed reinforcements on more than 200,000 meters of wall.
Smith praised the Marines’ adaptability in taking on a domestic security mission outside their traditional focus. “You were asked to deploy into a complex and demanding environment, and you did so without hesitation,” Smith said. “You demonstrated the Marine Corps’ ability to support any mission, in any climate, in any place, with the same steadfast professionalism that has defined our legacy for more than 250 years.”
Hegseth closed the ceremony by relaying thanks from Trump. “What you’ve done is incredibly meaningful to the soul of this nation, and we are grateful for the service that you’ve given,” Hegseth said. “On behalf of your commander in chief, on behalf of the nation, it is my honor to give you these Mexican Border Defense Medals and thank you for your service to this great republic.”
The ceremony took place amid the Pentagon’s broader border security mission, which has run alongside the department’s ongoing military operations against Iran since February.
The Department of Defense was officially renamed the Department of War earlier this year, a change Hegseth has championed and referenced during the ceremony when describing the medal’s historical revival.