President Donald Trump on Friday issued a memorandum authorizing the U.S. military to take control of a strip of federal land along the southern border to curb illegal immigration and drug trafficking.
“Our southern border is under attack from a variety of threats. The complexity of the current situation requires that our military take a more direct role in securing our southern border than in the recent past,” Trump wrote in the memo, addressed to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins.
The cabinet members should “take all appropriate actions” to facilitate Department of Defense jurisdiction over federal lands “reasonably necessary” for military operations outlined in the memo, the president said….