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The Donald Trump administration is planning to take control of the buffer zone along the southern border and to empower US troops to temporarily hold migrants illegally entering the country, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday, quoting officials familiar with the matter.
According to officials, these deliberations have been underway for weeks, focusing on a section of the border in New Mexico.
This move would turn buffer zones into expansive satellite military installations, the report stated, adding that it would enable the most significant use yet of active-duty forces at the border under Trump.
However, the potential militarisation of the buffer zone has raised concerns about whether employing the military in this way would be in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act, a federal law that prohibits active-duty troops from most law enforcement missions.
The military-controlled buffer zone could measure 60 feet deep and would stretch west to California if the plan is approved, officials told The Washington Post, adding that the Pentagon has asked military officers to examine whether any legal complications could arise from the move.
“It’s very, very careful on that wording,” a defense official told the American publication. “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 official reportedly said.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has voiced his support for similar efforts. “We have defended other places and other spaces,” the report quoted Hegseth as saying in February during his initial trip to the border as Pentagon chief. “We will defend this line,” he had said.
