Army takes control of 110,000 acres on border
By Andrew J. Polk
Click here for updates on this story
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — The Army is now in charge of tens of thousands of acres of land along the border. It’s part of the changes ordered by the Trump administration to how border security and patrolling are handled. ABC-7 dug deeper on where the land is – and what the control means.
The U.S. Military has been deploying additional troops and equipment to the Borderland, such as Army Stryker armored vehicles, in support of border security efforts and to assist Border Patrol and other federal agencies.
And now, that role is expanding even further.
Earlier this month, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum was in southern New Mexico to announce an “emergency withdrawal” and jurisdiction transfer of nearly 110 thousand acres of federal land to the Department of the Army for the next three years.
The land had been under the control of the Bureau of Land Management, the federal agency that oversees the vast federal public land holdings in western states. There are no federal public lands like that in Texas.
The land is now considered part of the “National Defense Area” – and will be defended as if it was an extension of Fort Huachuca in Arizona. According to the Department of Defense, that means that soldiers will be able to enforce a controlled perimeter and access – and can stop and hold trespassers as if they were coming onto an army post to then turn over to law enforcement or federal agents.
In addition, the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security and the Interior are operating in the Roosevelt Reservation, a 60-foot strip of land next to the border in New Mexico, Arizona and California. The reservation was created by a proclamation by President Teddy Roosevelt in 1907 for anti-smuggling efforts, and excludes Federal Indian Reservations.
Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.
