WASHINGTON: The US military has created a second military zone along the border with Mexico, adding an area in Texas where troops can temporarily detain migrants or trespassers to one designated in New Mexico last month.
President Donald Trump has launched an aggressive immigration enforcement campaign since taking office, increasing troops at the southern border and pledging to deport millions of immigrants in the United States illegally.
The Trump administration in April said it designated a 60-foot-wide, 170-mile-long (18 meter by 270 km) strip along the base of New Mexico as a “National Defense Area.”
Late on Thursday, the US military said it had established the “Texas National Defense Area” in a 63-mile-long strip running east from the Texas-New Mexico border in El Paso.
US Customs and Border Protection maintains jurisdiction over illegal border crossings in the area and troops would hand over migrants they detained to US Border Patrol or other civilian law enforcement, according to the Defense Department.
So far, 82 migrants have been charged for crossing into the New Mexico military zone, according to the state’s US Attorney’s Office. US troops have not detained any of them and they were dealt with by CBP officials.
The zone is intended to allow the Trump administration to use troops to detain migrants without invoking the 1807 Insurrection Act that empowers a president to deploy the US military to suppress events like civil disorder.
Around 11,900 troops are currently on the border. The number of migrants caught crossing illegally in March fell to the lowest level ever recorded, according to government data.
Texas Governor Gregg Abbott, a Republican, on Thursday posted pictures of razor wire barrier construction on the border, saying “Texas continues to work with the Trump Administration to stop illegal immigration.”
Since 2021 Abbott has deployed the state’s National Guard and police to border security.
New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham has opposed what she called a “deportation buffer zone” in her state.
In a March social media post the Democrat called it “a waste of resources and military personnel, especially when migrant crossings are at the lowest in decades.”
US military creates new military zone along border with Mexico
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US military creates new military zone along border with Mexico
- The US military said it had established the “Texas National Defense Area” in a 63-mile-long strip running east from the Texas-New Mexico border in El Paso
US Republicans back Trump on Iran strikes, block bid to rein in war powers
- Republicans blocked prior efforts to curb Trump’s war powers
- Prolonged war could affect November mid-term elections
WASHINGTON: US Senate Republicans backed President Donald Trump’s military campaign against Iran on Wednesday, voting to block a bipartisan resolution aiming to stop the air war and require that any hostilities against Iran be authorized by Congress.
As voting continued, the tally in the 100-member Senate was 52 to 47 not to advance the resolution, largely along party lines, with almost every Republican voting against the procedural motion and almost every Democrat supporting it.
The latest effort by Democrats and a few Republicans to rein in President Donald Trump’s repeated foreign troop deployments, sponsors described the war powers resolution as a bid to take back Congress’ responsibility to declare war, as spelled out in the US Constitution.
Opponents rejected this, insisting that Trump’s action was legal and within his right as commander in chief to protect the United States by ordering limited strikes.
“This is not a forever war, indeed not even close to it. This is going to end very quickly,” Republican Senator Jim Risch of Idaho, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a speech against the resolution.
The measure had not been expected to succeed. Trump’s fellow Republicans hold slim majorities in both the Senate and House of Representatives, and have blocked previous resolutions seeking to curb his war powers.
US Senator Ted Cruz speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on March 4, 2026, ahead of the vote on a resolution aimed at curbing President Donald Trump's authority to continue military strikes on Iran. (AFP)
