President Donald Trump issued a memorandum on Friday to put the U.S. military in control of a 60-foot strip of land along the southern border between the United States and Mexico.
Friday’s memorandum, titled “Military Mission for Sealing the Southern Border of the United States and Repelling Invasions,” orders Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Interior Doug Burgum, and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins 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.”
The president’s memorandum noted that the order could involve “border-barrier construction and emplacement of detection and monitoring equipment.”
“Our southern border is under attack from a variety of threats,” Trump stated. “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.”
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According to Fox News, the land outlined in Trump’s memorandum is a 60-foot strip of land that is part of the Roosevelt Reservation along the southern border between the United States and Mexico. Under the president’s order, the 60-foot strip of land will be considered a “military installation” and will be designated as a “National Defense Area” where “military activities” can take place.
Trump’s memorandum explains that Hegseth can “determine those military activities that are reasonably necessary and appropriate to accomplish the mission” of securing the southern border.
Fox News reported that the Roosevelt Reservation spans across Arizona, California, and New Mexico. The outlet noted that the Roosevelt Reservation was initially designated by former President Theodore Roosevelt as federal land in 1907 in an effort to secure the southern border.
According to The Post Millennial, some opponents of the president’s memorandum have argued that Trump’s order could violate the “Posse Comitatus Act,” which prevents active-duty military personnel from carrying out domestic law enforcement activities.
Following Trump’s order, Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, tweeted, “Welp they’re doing the Roosevelt Reservation crazy strategy, giving the military ‘jurisdiction’ over a 60-foot-wide stretch of land from CA to AZ and then claim that migrants are being arrested for ‘trespassing on military property’ thus trying to bypass the Posse Commitatus Act.”
Source: American Military News
