Presidential Memo: “Military Mission for Sealing the Southern Border of the United States and Repelling Invasions”

Building America's Golden Age

The Roosevelt Reservation runs along the southern border from the Pacific Ocean to the eastern border of New Mexico.

In 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt’s Presidential Proclamation established the Roosevelt Reservation in order to keep all public lands along the USA-Mexico border in California, Arizona, & New Mexico "free from obstruction as a protection against the smuggling of goods between the United States and Mexico." Texas was excluded because Texas retained all public lands upon the Texas annexation and admittance as a state, much of which, unfortunately, has been sold over the years to private parties. This is a 60-foot-wide strip of land, 632 miles long, owned by the United States Federal Government.

PRESIDENTIAL MEMORANDUM

The newest effort from the Trump Administration to secure the southern border includes authorizing the military to take control of public land along the border. “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,” a White House memorandum dated April 11th stated.

In a historic move, the Department of Defense took over control of the Roosevelt Reservation from the Department of the Interior. This memo gives the Pentagon full authority to build barriers, install detection equipment and even create what are being called “National Defense Areas” along that strip, creating active-duty military space. DoD Secretary Pete Hegseth has 45 days to assess this first phase and could expand it at any time. That means even more land, more troops and more federal force possibly coming to the southern border.

The Roosevelt Reservation will be treated as Department of Defense property, meaning those who walk on the land could be subject to detention and likely legal action.

Prior to Trump's memo last week, soldiers had already begun conducting patrols along the barrier wall separating the United States and Mexico in an effort to detect and track suspected illegal activity. A U.S. Northern Command order in late March gave troops the ability to patrol border routes, something that the command said would give them more "maneuverability" in support of their Customs and Border Protection counterparts.

Those patrols included dedicated military assets, such as the Stryker, an armored vehicle largely meant to transport troops to and from missions. The inclusion of that equipment marks a significant shift from active-duty border missions of the past, in which service members were often limited to Border Patrol vehicles or optics without the ability to move from stationary observation posts along the border.

DETENTION FACILITY UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Defense Secretary Hegseth authorized the Army to assume control and management of Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement contracts for construction, maintenance and upkeep of the existing processing center at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, a sprawling military installation along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Construction is underway for the Fort Bliss detention facility. Last week the Army began prepping a site at Fort Bliss for the construction of the new migrant detention facility expected to hold as many as 5,000 people. Details about the composition of the detainee population remain unclear, including whether the facility will hold both individuals deemed security risks and families. Fort Bliss was used to house thousands of Afghans during a major Biden Administration resettlement effort following America’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021.

Although the new detention facility is being built at Fort Bliss, uniformed service members will not oversee daily operations. Instead, the site will be jointly managed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The contract to build the camp has been awarded to Deployed Resources, a private company specializing in massive long-term-use tents. The company is known for erecting large-scale, tent-based infrastructure, which officials say allows for faster deployment compared to traditional infrastructure.