WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. military has created a second military zone along the border with Mexico, adding an area in Texas where troops can temporarily detain migrants or trespassers after another such area was designated in New Mexico last month.
President Donald Trump has launched an aggressive immigration enforcement campaign since taking office, increasing troops at the southern border and pledging to deport millions of immigrants in the United States illegally.
The Trump administration in April said it designated a 170-square-mile (440 square km) strip along the base of New Mexico as a “National Defense Area.”
Late on Thursday, the U.S. military said it had established the “Texas National Defense Area” in a 63 mile-long strip running east from the Texas-New Mexico border in El Paso.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection maintains jurisdiction over illegal border crossings in the area and troops would hand over migrants they detained to U.S. Border Patrol or other civilian law enforcement.
So far, 82 migrants have been charged for crossing into the New Mexico military zone, according to the state’s U.S. Attorney’s Office. U.S. troops have not detained any of them and they were dealt with by CBP officials.
The zone is intended to allow the Trump administration to use troops to detain migrants without invoking the 1807 Insurrection Act that empowers a president to deploy the U.S. military to suppress events such as civil disorder.
Around 11,900 troops are currently on the border. The number of migrants caught crossing illegally in March fell to the lowest level recorded, according to government data.
Texas Governor Gregg Abbott, a Republican, on Thursday posted pictures of razor-wire barrier construction, saying “Texas continues to work with the Trump Administration to stop illegal immigration.”
New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham has opposed what she calls a “deportation buffer zone,” in a March social media post calling it “a waste of resources and military personnel.”
The office of New Mexico U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich on Friday said the buffer zone was several miles wide in places, raising concerns for civilians who might accidentally enter it.
“It’s much further than just the 60-foot Roosevelt Reservation,” Heinrich spokeswoman Caty Payette told Source NM, referring to a strip of federal land running along the border.
(Reporting by Idrees Ali, Phil Stewart and Andrew Hay; editing by Diane Craft and Rosalba O’Brien)
