President Donald Trump is reportedly evaluating plans to have the Department of Defense create a buffer zone along the U.S.-Mexico border that it will control, thus empowering the U.S. military to provide more assistance to border officials as they execute the greatest crackdown on the border in U.S. history.
Multiple U.S. officials told The Washington Post that plans have been under development for weeks and they involve in-part a section of border in New Mexico.
The report said that if the effort is successful that the buffer zone, which is only 20 yards deep, would be expanded west into California.
The plan would get around the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits active-duty troops from operating on U.S. soil to carry out most activities carried out by law enforcement, by turning that buffer zone into a U.S. military installation.
The report said:
As part of the effort, senior Pentagon officials have asked military officers to examine whether any legal complications could arise from having U.S. troops temporarily hold those crossing illegally when CBP agents are not immediately available to arrest them, officials said. By militarizing the buffer zone, the theory goes, any migrant apprehensions made by service members would be tantamount to catching trespassers on a military base: The troops involved would simply hold them until law enforcement arrives.
The U.S. is allowed to transfer up to 5,000 acres at a time to the U.S. military without needing congressional approval, which is part of the reason why the plan would take time to fully roll out, the report said.
A defense official that spoke to the Post said that the wording in the plan is very precise to avoid any legal landmines that could arise when activist lawyers seek to challenge the plan in court.
“It’s very, very careful on that wording,” the official said. “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.”
The more than 10,000 active-duty military members deployed on the southern border have had a profound deterrent effect on those seeking to illegally come to the U.S. as border officials have seen a dramatic 80-90% drop in illegal crossings since Trump came back in office.
