Migrants detained at New Mexico border can be charged with entering military zone

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (TNND) — Migrants detained at the New Mexico border can now receive additional charges for entering a military zone, following a directive from President Donald Trump.

Trump signed a presidential memoranda this month regarding a “Military Mission for Sealing the Southern Border of the United States and Repelling Invasions.” That memo directed the Department of Defense to take control of a 170-square-mile strip of federal land along the southern border.

“Once the Army accepts jurisdiction of that land, it will become part of a national defense area — a specified piece of federal land over which DOD maintains administrative authority and jurisdiction and is permitted to establish and enforce a controlled perimeter and access,” the Department of Defense wrote this month. “The area will be considered an extension of Fort Huachuca, Arizona.”

Service members throughout the zone now have the authority to apprehend trespassers and can construct boundaries to repel intruders.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico decried the move, claiming it uses the nation’s military as a police force.

“As New Mexicans, we have deep concerns about the enhanced militarization of our borderlands communities,” it wrote. “The expansion of military detention powers in the ‘New Mexico National Defense Area’—also known as the ‘border buffer zone’—represents a dangerous erosion of the constitutional principle that the military should not be policing civilians.”

“By authorizing service members to detain, search, and conduct 'crowd control,' these new authorities undermine our state's values of dignity, respect, and community,” it added. “We don't want militarized zones where border residents—including U.S. citizens—face potential prosecution simply for being in the wrong place. This isn't how we want to be in relation with our neighbors.”

Several migrants have already been charged with breeching the military zone, according to Reuters.

Follow Jackson Walker on X at @_jlwalker_ for the latest trending national news. Have a news tip? Send it to jacwalker@sbgtv.com.