Trump grants military control over federal lands near Southern border

US President Donald Trump has issued a directive granting military authority over federal lands located across the country's border with Mexico, aimed at intensifying his crackdown on undocumented immigration through the Southern border.

The governmental memorandum was released on April 11, which instructs several cabinet secretaries to transfer jurisdiction of specific federal lands to the Department of Defense, Caliber.Az reports citing Bloomberg.

The areas affected include the Roosevelt Reservation, which is a narrow strip along the southwestern border stretching across Arizona, New Mexico, and California, while explicitly excluding federal Native American reservations.

The directive permits the military to use these lands for operations outlined in the memo, including border wall construction and deployment of surveillance and detection equipment. It also allows for the designation of these zones as “National Defense Areas.”

According to the document, the order grants the Secretary of Defense the authority to “exclude persons from a military installation,” which could facilitate the removal of migrants from designated areas.

Initially, the directive will be enforced in a limited section of federal land, with a review scheduled 45 days after the order’s issuance.

Since taking office in January 2025, Trump has intensified efforts to deport undocumented migrants with the primary focus put on those that have committed crimes in the US or bare a criminal history in their country of origin.

During his campaign ahead of the presidential election, Trump repeatedly accused President Joe Biden and his administration of engaging in a "conspiracy to overthrow the United States" through poor security policies that have led to millions of migrants to stream across the US border with Mexico with little governmental supervision.

By Nazrin Sadigova