Donald Trump has decided to go ‘nuclear’ on the migrant crisis by allowing the military to take control of a ‘buffer zone’ near the Southern border with Mexico.
Trump’s ambitious plan would turn the 60-foot deep buffer zone into a military installation at the border and allow US troops to temporarily hold migrants who cross over into the America.
A defense official told The Washington Post that the migrants would be held until legally detained by civilian law enforcement.
The president has made fixing the migrant issue the top of his second term agenda and has seen success early on with illegal crossings plummeting from the record highs under predecessor Joe Biden.
Now, Trump’s homeland security team is reportedly set to announce plans to take greater control over the partition in a section in New Mexico.
If the initial plan is termed a success by the administration, officials believe the zone would eventually stretch west to California.
The designation would allow the Pentagon to deploy resources from its massive $800billion budget on the border crackdown.
When reached by DailyMail.com, a Pentagon spokesperson said they ‘have nothing to announce at this time.’ DailyMail.com has reached out to the White House and the Department of Homeland Security for comment.
The military is largely prohibited by federal law from many law enforcement duties by the Posse Comitatus Act.
Donald Trump is taking his next step to resolve the crisis at America’s border with Mexico with plans to let the military take control of a ‘buffer zone’ that would allow them to hold illegal migrants
Trump’s homeland security team is reportedly set to announce plans to take greater control over the partition in a section in New Mexico
Trump has gotten around the law during his second term by using Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) or Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to detain migrants and then moving them.
The Pentagon is seeking counsel from the military on whether or not this could cause legal problems.
A legal theory for how this would work is comparing migrants entering the buffer zone to trespassing upon a military base.
‘It’s very, very careful on that wording. It’s not ‘detention’ because once you go into detention it has the connotations of being detained for arrest. This is holding for civilian law enforcement,’ a Defense official said.
Troops would then give the migrants over to the proper authorities.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has previously backed using the military at the border.
‘We have defended other places and other spaces. We will defend this line,’ he said in February.
The stretch of land in New Mexico that would serve as a test is federal land Theodore Roosevelt set aside specifically for protecting the border in 1907.
Trump’s plan would turn the 60-foot deep buffer zone into a military installation that would let the Pentagon use a larger portion of its over $800billion budget on the border crackdown
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The land is usually monitored by the Department of the Interior, though in the past, pieces have been given over to the Pentagon, as recently as Trump’s first term.
Federal law allows government transfers of federal land from Interior to DOD of 5,000 acres at a time without having to go through Congress.
The Trump White House has been experimenting with ways to deploy the military to the border since returning to office.
A Navy destroyer ship has been sent to the southern border in an effort to bolster national security, amid President Trump’s plan to ‘reclaim the Panama Canal.’
The USS Gravely recently spent nine months in the thick of conflict in the Middle East, fighting off continuous assaults from Houthi rebels in the Red Sea.
But now the 509ft guided-missile destroyer is en route to the US southern border as President Trump ramps up security to fight what he describes as an ‘invasion’ of American territory and rampant drug cartels.
The ship, which carries dozens of Tomahawk cruise missiles, will be stationed in waters typically patrolled by the US Coast Guard. It will also operate in international waters.
According to US Northern Command General Gregory Guillot, the Gravely will help ‘to protect the United States territorial integrity, sovereignty and security.’
Officials believe that if the plan is termed a success by the administration, the zone would eventually stretch west to California
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The deployment will contribute to ‘a coordinated and robust response to combating maritime related terrorism, weapons proliferation, transnational crime, piracy, environmental destruction, and illegal seaborne immigration,’ Defense officials added.
Trump campaigned on a mass deportation policy and set to work cracking down on illegal immigration as soon as he returned to the White House.
He vowed to send an additional 10,000 troops to the border with Mexico to bolster security measures and reinstate his remain in Mexico policy, which requires migrants who are seeking asylum in the US to wait for their court date in the country from which they crossed.
While few details have been made about Gravely’s next mission, authorities made it clear that it was in response to Trump’s executive order to secure the borders.
Upon returning to the White House, Trump declared a national emergency at the border with Mexico.
The Gravely will house a squad of US Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment – elite operators who specialize in maritime missions like fighting piracy and intercepting drug trafficking rings.
