WASHINGTON: The Pentagon will create two new military zones along the border with Mexico, US officials said on Wednesday, a move that allows troops to temporarily detain migrants or trespassers. President Donald Trump’s administration has hailed its actions along the border, including the deployment of active duty troops, as the reason for a sharp decline in crossings by undocumented migrants. Trump made voters’ concerns about immigration a cornerstone of his 2024 re-election bid.
The Pentagon has already created two military zones, but only four people have been temporarily detained on them, a US official said.
A new “National Defense Area” will be created covering about 250 miles (402 km) of the Rio Grande river in Texas and administered as a part of Joint Base San Antonio, according to the Air Force.
The US officials said the other military zone would be administered as a part of Marine Corps Air Station in Yuma, Arizona.
The zones are 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 such as civil disorder.
As legal deterrents to border crossers, the zones have had mixed results. Federal magistrate judges in New Mexico and Texas dismissed trespassing charges against dozens of migrants caught in the areas on grounds they did not know they were in a restricted military zone.
However, some 120 migrants pleaded guilty to trespassing in the first Texas zone in May and federal prosecutors obtained their first two trespassing convictions for the New Mexico zone on June 18, according to US Attorneys’ Offices in the two states.
Around 11,900 troops are currently on the border.
Illegal border crossings fell to a record low in March after the Biden administration shut down asylum claims in 2024 and Mexico tightened immigration controls.
US military to create two new border zones, officials say
https://arab.news/c6usr
US military to create two new border zones, officials say
- A new “National Defense Area” will be created covering about 250 miles (402 km) of the Rio Grande river in Texas
Sweden wants to strip organized crime leaders of citizenship
- A bill submitted to parliament on Friday includes a proposal that would allow revoking passports of double citizenship holders convicted of “crimes”
STOCKHOLM: The Swedish government on Friday proposed changes to the constitution that would allow revoking the citizenship of some criminal gang leaders, as part of its work to combat widespread organized crime.
In January, a cross-party parliamentary committee proposed constitutional changes to allow stripping the passports of people with dual nationality convicted of espionage or treason, but stopped short of suggestions targeting organized crime.
“The government has chosen to go further than the committee’s proposal precisely to make it possible to also revoke citizenship from, for example, gang leaders who are guilty of very, very serious harm to society,” Justice Minister Gunnar Strommer told a press conference.
He said a bill submitted to parliament on Friday includes a proposal that would allow revoking passports of double citizenship holders convicted of “crimes that gravely affect vital national interests” such as serious gang crime.
Sweden has been plagued by organized crime-related violence for well over a decade.
The government and its backers, the far-right and anti-immigration Sweden Democrats, won the 2022 election on a promise to reduce immigration and gang crime, which they say are linked. New general elections are due in 2026.
To change the Swedish constitution, the proposals need to pass a vote in parliament with a simple majority, followed by a general election and then a second Riksdag vote.
Strommer said he aims for the proposed changes to the constitution to enter into force at the start of 2027.
