Second US military zone along border with Mexico set up to deter migrants

Following the announcement last month that a second military zone belonged to New Mexico along the border, the US military has added a Texas area where troops can temporarily detain trespassers.

President Donald Trump has increased troop levels at the southern border, pledged to deport millions of Americans, and announced the creation of a new military camp as a result of his aggressive anti-immigration crackdown on immigration.

Children who are citizens of the United States were some of the people the Trump administration deported.

A 100-kilometer (63-mile) strip east of the Texas-New Mexico border in El Paso, the US military announced late on Thursday that it had established the “Texas National Defense Area.”

The detainees will then be handed over to US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) or another civilian law enforcement, which has authority over illegal border crossings, according to the Pentagon.

A 270km-long, 18-meter-wide (60 feet by 170 miles) strip along New Mexico’s base was designated a “National Defense Area” by the Trump administration in April.

According to the US Attorney’s Office, 82 people have been charged with entering the New Mexico military zone so far. None of them were detained by US forces, and CBP officials handled them.

Without violating the 1807 Insurrection Act, which allows a president to deploy the US military only to suppress civil unrest, the Trump administration is authorized to use its military forces to detain migrants in the military zones.

At the border with Mexico, about 11, 900 US soldiers are currently stationed. The number of migrants who were caught entering the US illegally in March was at its lowest level ever, according to government data.

Republican governor of Texas Gregg Abbott wrote, “Texas continues to work with the Trump Administration to stop illegal immigration,” on Thursday, posting images of a razor wire barrier construction on the border.

Abbott has border security deployed the state’s National Guard and police since 2021.

Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico has opposed what she has referred to as a “deportation buffer zone.”