Army authorized to detain, search people at New Mexico border

LAS CRUCES — The U.S. Northern Command announced Tuesday that service members will begin “installation security support operations” at the border, increasing the military’s law enforcement role with respect to people crossing into the United States outside authorized ports of entry.

Military personnel assigned to the new Joint Task Force — Southern Border have been conducting reconnaissance at the border since March in a deployment enabled by President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico boundary on Jan. 20. Earlier this month, Trump ordered the designation of “national defense areas” on federal lands along the border, including the Roosevelt Reservation, a thin strip of land tracing the international boundary through California, Arizona and New Mexico, over the next three years.

On Tuesday, the Joint Task Force, based at the Army’s Fort Huachuca installation, said personnel would begin operations, including detention and searchers of “trespassers” in the defense areas, crowd control, emergency medical aid and assisting in the construction of border fencing.

“Through these enhanced authorities, U.S. Northern Command will ensure those who illegally trespass in the New Mexico National Defense Area are handed over to Customs and Border Protection or our other law enforcement partners,” Gen. Gregory Guillot stated in a news release. He said detection and monitoring conducted by the armed forces “will include vehicle and foot patrols, rotary wing, and fixed surveillance site operations.”

The development comes as border crossings in New Mexico have dropped sharply, from around 34,000 people in December to 1,627 in March, a 95% decrease.

Doña Ana County Commissioner Manuel Sanchez reacted to the border mobilization during a board of commissioners meeting Tuesday in Las Cruces. Sanchez objected to the use of the military, with the potential collaboration with local sheriff’s deputies, in a plan to “skirt around the Constitution” by arresting migrants on criminal trespass charges, only for ICE to take over and implement the administration’s mass deportation policy.

“The solution from the federal government or the White House is to bring the Army in for this? That’s ridiculous,” he said, and then pointed out chronic understaffing at the Border Patrol. “Instead of addressing their hiring issues and the requirements of that, they bring the Army in.”

“It does seem like a very stepped-up version of border militarization combined with this effective mandate to enhance prosecutions of border-related violations,” Rebecca Sheff, senior staff attorney with the ACLU of New Mexico, told the Journal.

Although the announcement referred to local law enforcement agencies, Sheff said, “Nothing about this deputizes local law enforcement to enforce federal immigration law. Their scope of authority remains the same, and state government can make a choice about whether to direct state and local law enforcement to refrain from collaborating in federal efforts to militarize the border or go after people for alleged trespass violations.”

“To have folks faced with the threat of these types of military encounters or criminal consequences is quite serious,” she continued. “We’ll be tracking it very closely.”