President Donald Trump sent a memorandum to four federal department heads Friday night instructing them to allow the military to use and take jurisdiction of federal land along the US-Mexico border.
The memo, sent to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Agricultural Secretary Brooke Rollins, states that the military must “take a more direct role” in efforts to secure the border and calls on the secretaries to act to provide the Defense Department “use and jurisdiction” over certain federal lands “to enable military activities” on military installations.
The memo states that the Defense Department should be provided jurisdiction over lands including the Roosevelt Reservation – a 60-foot-wide swath of land along the border – for military purposes including border wall construction and installing detection and monitoring equipment. The memo excludes Federal Indian Reservations.
Trump mandated that the US military step up its presence along the southern border on his first day in office, and thousands of additional active duty US troops have been ordered there as part of the Trump administration’s ongoing military mission at the border, CNN previously reported.
Because Trump has declared a national emergency at the border, according to the memo, Burgum “may make withdrawals, reservations, and restrictions of public lands to provide for the utilization of public lands by the Department of Defense.”
The memo also confirms what CNN reported last month was in the works: plans for the military to take command of a swath of territory along the border by designating federal lands as a military installation.
Migrants who cross in this area would be put into “holding” for trespassing onto a military property, CNN previously reported, until the Department of Homeland Security could arrive to pick them up and deport them — putting the military in the position of effectively detaining migrants, something that is traditionally a law enforcement function. The military is prohibited from carrying out domestic law enforcement under the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act, but by describing the zone as a “holding” area, DoD could feasibly circumvent that law.
The memo explains that the four agency heads will “initially implement this memorandum on a limited sector of federal lands” designated by Hegseth. However, at any time, Hegseth can “extend activities” under the memo to additional federal lands along the border.
The memo further states that, “members of the Armed Forces will follow rules for the use of force prescribed by the Secretary of Defense.”
CNN’s Natasha Bertrand contributed to this report.
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