Trump OK's Military to Secure So. Border on Public Lands

President Donald Trump on Friday authorized the U.S. military to occupy and take jurisdiction over public lands along the southern border with Mexico.

"Our southern border is under attack from a variety of threats," Trump wrote in a National Security Presidential Memorandum released by the White House. "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."

The memo builds on Trump's Inauguration Day declaration of a national emergency at the southern border. The declaration requested a report within 90 days from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem "about the conditions at the southern border of the United States and any recommendations regarding additional actions that may be necessary to obtain complete operational control of the southern border, including whether to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807."

The memo seeks to give the Pentagon jurisdiction over federal lands, including the Roosevelt Reservation along the southern borders of California, Arizona, and New Mexico, and excluding federal Indian reservations "that are reasonably necessary to enable military activities … including border-barrier construction and emplacement of detection and monitoring equipment."

The memo provides for the "transfer and acceptance of jurisdiction over such Federal lands in accordance with applicable law to enable military activities … to occur on a military installation under the jurisdiction of the Department of Defense and for the designation of such Federal lands as National Defense Areas by the Secretary of Defense."

It also allows Hegseth to "determine those military activities that are reasonably necessary and appropriate to accomplish the mission assigned" in Trump's Inauguration Day executive order titled "Clarifying the Military's Role in Protecting the Territorial Integrity of the United States." In conducting activities stated in the memo, "members of the Armed Forces will follow rules for the use of force prescribed by" Hegseth.

The memo further adds that Hegseth, Noem, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins "will initially implement this memorandum on a limited sector of Federal lands designated" by Hegseth. Within 45 days, Hegseth "shall assess this initial phase" and at any time can "extend activities … to additional Federal lands along the southern border in coordination Noem, Stephen Miller, Trump's Homeland Security adviser, "and other executive departments and agencies as appropriate."

After Trump's Inauguration Day emergency declaration, the Pentagon reportedly ordered 1,500 troops to supplement the force of 2,500 that had been assigned to the southern border during the Biden administration. But other moves followed, including deployment of the 10th Mountain Division headquarters and its top officer, Maj. Gen. Scott Naumann, from Fort Drum in New York to Fort Huachuca in southeast Arizona to oversee the mission. About 6,600 troops, composing what's known as Joint Task Force Southern Border, are now under his command.

For now, the active-duty military mission at the border is largely to support Customs and Border Protection with detection capabilities, The Washington Post reported earlier Friday. Active-duty troops do not have legal authority to detain illegal immigrants because of the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits active-duty troops from conducting law enforcement missions with some exceptions.

The memo comes amid a sharp drop in illegal border crossing since the start of Trump's second term. In March, Customs and Border Protection reported 7,180 crossings at the southern border, compared to the monthly average of 155,000 from the previous four years. Apprehensions also have fallen to about 230 per day, a 95% drop from the Biden administration's average daily encounters of 5,100.