The U.S. military will take control of a strip of federally owned land that runs along the U.S.-Mexico border to further tighten security and increase enforcement of illegal border crossings.
President Donald Trump issued the unprecedented order on Friday, designating that federal land within the Roosevelt Reservation will be treated as Department of Defense property. The 60-foot-wide strip of land stretches across California, Arizona, and New Mexico.
The Trump administration has deployed thousands of U.S. soldiers to the southern border. But this latest directive means those who walk on the land could be subject to detention and likely legal action.
The memo specifies a “military installation” designated as a “National Defense Area” where “military activities” would occur. FOX News reports that the Roosevelt Reservation became federal land in 1907, under then-President Theodore Roosevelt, to keep the border secure and stop smuggling activities.
“Our southern border is under attack from a variety of threats,” Trump wrote in the memorandum. “The complexity of the current situation requires that our military take a more direct role in securing our southern border than in the recent past.”
The memorandum, “Military Mission for Sealing the Southern Border of the United States and Repelling Invasions,” directs the secretaries of Defense, Interior, Agriculture and Homeland Security “to provide for the use and jurisdiction by the Department of Defense over such Federal lands, including the Roosevelt Reservation and excluding Federal Indian Reservations, that are reasonably necessary to enable military activities.”
Trump’s memo stated the effort “will initially implement this memorandum on a limited sector of federal lands designated by the secretary of defense.” Trump wrote it could include “border-barrier construction and emplacement of detection and monitoring equipment.”
In addition, the secretary of defense can determine military activities that are “reasonably necessary and appropriate to accomplish the mission” of keeping the border secure.
Establishing a military buffer zone that stretches across the U.S.-Mexico border means any migrant illegally crossing into the United States would be trespassing on a military base. If caught, active-duty troops would be able to hold them until U.S. Border Patrol agents arrive.
However, putting U.S. military members in direct contact with migrants is a possible violation of federal law. Critics argue Trump is navigating in some gray areas and trying to circumvent the Posse Comitatus Act. The 1878 law generally prohibits the military from performing domestic law enforcement duties.
According to Military.com reports, it’s an unprecedented move in modern military operations. A defense official told Military.com that apprehension efforts on the Roosevelt Reservation will initially be focused near the U.S. Army base at Fort Huachuca, Arizona.
In recent months, soldiers have had an active presence, including conducting patrols, along the barrier wall separating the U.S. and Mexico in an effort to detect and track suspected illegal activity.
Elsewhere along the border, construction is underway for the Fort Bliss migrant detention facility at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas—a sprawling military installation along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Construction on the border wall also recently resumed in Texas and Arizona. Last month, U.S. Customs and Border Protection awarded a $70.2 million contract to close critical gaps in the border wall in the Rio Grande Valley sector of Texas, according to cbp.gov.
