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The Defense Department has announced that it has added an additional 250-mile (400-kilometer) zone last week in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley and plans another near Yuma, Arizona. Combined, the zones will cover nearly one-third of the U.S. border with Mexico as an escalation in the Trump Administration policy of militarization of the borderlands.
Orange no-entry signs posted by the U.S. military in English and Spanish now dot the New Mexico desert, where a border wall cuts past family farms, open fields and dry parched ranches with little greenery growing amidst wiry brush and yucca trees in the borderlands.
These military zones are now patrolled by at least 7,600 members of the armed forces, vastly expanding the U.S. government presence on the border.
Reaction to the military buffer has been mixed among residents of New Mexico's rural southern counties, where a strong Libertarian culture of individual property rights and liberty is tempered by the desire to squelch networks bringing migrants and contraband across the border.
A concern raised by local borderlands hunters and hikers is a fear they’re being locked out of a rugged and cherished landscape that is excellent for wild hunting, bird watching and rugged hiking.
Nicole Wieman, an Army command spokesperson, in a press statement said, the Army is negotiating possible public access for recreation and hunting, and will honor private rights to grazing and mining as exemptions being worked through under this presidential mandate.
More than 1,400 migrants have been charged with trespassing on military territory, facing a possible 18-month prison sentence for a first offense. That’s on top of an illegal entry charge that brings up to six months in custody. After that, most are turned over to U.S. Customs and Border Protection for likely deportation. There have been no apparent arrests of U.S. citizens reported as of yet.
Oversight is divided between U.S. Army commands in Fort Bliss, Texas, and Fort Huachuca, Arizona. The militarized zones sidestep the Posse Comitatus Act, an 1878 law that prohibits the military from conducting civilian law enforcement on U.S. soil via presidential decree.
Court challenges to trespassing charges in the militarized zone have met with a mixture of convictions and acquittals at trial.
Ryan Ellison, the top federal prosecutor in New Mexico, won trespassing convictions in June against two immigrants who entered a militarized zone again after an initial warning. “There’s not going to be an issue as to whether or not they were on notice,” he told a recent news conference. With the new signage and expansion that appears to be true.
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Replies
John Baake
Neighbor
7-05-2025 7:38am
Gotta love these activists, complaining that the area has passed from defacto control by para-military drug cartels, with orders to shoot anyone they see on site. To control by the US military with orders to warn and detain.
I disagree with this
This is unverified
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tom mitchell
Neighbor
7-05-2025 10:14am
three cheers for the "escalation in the trump administration policy of militarization of the borderlands". most good americans always wanted to live inside a military zone - just like all the germans in post war berlin...and the delightful 38th parallel in korea.
dear leader, and the always inspirational stephen miller will expand these "zones" until lots of us will be residents therein. check with the ranchers/residents along the texas border, and find out about all the advantages of living inside a military installation
John Baake
Neighbor
7-05-2025 3:31pm
Could it be much worse than living in or next to a national park, forest, or monument? Or even worse, a state park, forest, or wild life reserve?
The Federal and state land grabs have been astronomical in terms of the sheer amount of acreage seized.
The National defense zone hasn't taken a single square inch of private property from anyone.
The Roosevelt reserve is still providing the same exact function for which it was established 115 years ago. It's current implementation is just 99.9% more effective.
But I'd love to hear your non-military plan that would give at least a 90% secure border.
I know, let's dig a trench the entire length and fill it with molasses, that way anyone coming across would be eaten by fire ants the moment they stop to rest.
Or maybe we could just have Democrat lawmakers at the border welcoming them, but before entry they have to read the entire list of 65,000 genders, and sign a form agreeing to use the proper pronoun for each gender.
tom mitchell
Neighbor
7-05-2025 4:47pm
and i'll be tickled to death to give you the simple plan that can/would/will secure the entire perimeter border of these "united states" - almost overnight.
the plan has been around for nearly 30 years - established under that republican hero - bill clinton. you remember, the only president who achieved an actual balanced federal budget in over 75 years - 2 years in a row. E-Verify - Wikipedia
i will promise you that if truly enforced none of this militarized zone/cbp drive-thru/masked unidentifiable icemen would be necessary.
if there was genuine risk in employing illegal immigrants - by that i mean that the employer would go to jail...rather than the employee - cobwebs could grow across many ports of entry.
but that doesn't appeal to folks who directly benefit from cheap labor/easily controlled/off the record workers. and, i'll bet you $100 cash money that none of dear leader's golf courses/resorts/casinos are ever going to be raided by the icemen.
next question?
John Baake
Neighbor
7-06-2025 1:23pm
Giving Bill Clinton credit for balancing the budget is like giving Adolf ****** credit for ending WWII. He was there, but he did everything he could to fight against it. Newt Gingrich is the man responsible for that, battling against a staggering $290 billion deficit (or about 3/4 of one percent of today's deficit to put things in perspective).
And it's interesting you should mention him in relation to illegals. During his terms he doubled the number of border agents, and started building border walls and fences.
Of course it was all piece meal, so it had little overall effect, but unlike democrats today, at least you can say he did something more than putting out the welcome mat.
