The Pentagon is creating two additional expanded military zones at the southwestern border, to be patrolled by U.S. soldiers, in the Trump administration’s latest step to militarize the boundary with Mexico to help further reduce already dwindling migrant crossings.
One narrow strip of land will be established along the border of Arizona and become part of the Marine Corps Air Station in Yuma, according to two Defense Department officials. A second strip, in southern Texas, will become a part of Joint Base San Antonio, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational details.
With the addition of the two land strips, called national defense areas, there are now four such newly designated military installations. Migrants who enter the areas will be considered trespassers and can be temporarily detained by U.S. troops until Border Patrol agents arrive, military officials said.
The military’s Northern Command had previously announced that it was establishing a narrow strip of land along the southern border of Texas that will become part of Fort Bliss, near El Paso. The strip will be about 63 miles long.
And in April, the Pentagon created a 60-foot-wide strip of land along 200 miles of the border between New Mexico and Mexico, effectively turning it into part of a U.S. military base there.
The new Pentagon directives expand a military presence that has increased steadily along the southern border in recent months, even as crossings have already dropped precipitously during the Trump administration.
The Pentagon has sent nearly 9,000 active-duty troops to the border, as well as spy planes in the skies and Navy warships offshore, to comply with President Trump’s order in January to increase the military’s role in reducing migrant crossings.
Armed infantry and support troops from the Fourth Infantry Division at Fort Carson in Colorado — one of the Army’s most seasoned combat units — make up a major portion of the ground force in what the Pentagon calls Joint Task Force-Southern Border.
Eric Schmitt is a national security correspondent for The Times. He has reported on U.S. military affairs and counterterrorism for more than three decades.
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