The Department of Defense is establishing a new military buffer zone—known as a national defense area—along the southwestern border to curb illegal immigration.
On June 25, the U.S. Air Force announced that a 250-mile stretch of the border along the Rio Grande in Texas’s Cameron and Hidalgo counties will be designated an extension of Joint Base San Antonio.
The land was previously managed by the International Boundary and Water Commission, an agency overseeing water-sharing between the United States and Mexico.
The move is part of President Donald Trump’s broader strategy to allocate military resources for border enforcement. In an April presidential memo, Trump outlined plans to establish national defense areas, calling it a military mission “for sealing the southern border of the United States and repelling invaders.”…