President Donald Trump has approved the US army to take full jurisdiction over federal lands alongside the U.S.–Mexico border in an aggressive push to seal the border and repel the continuing invasion of unlawful immigrants, traffickers, and cartel operatives.
The memorandum, National Security Presidential Memorandum/NSPM-4, directs the Secretaries of Protection, Inside, Agriculture, and Homeland Safety to facilitate the fast switch of federal lands—together with the Roosevelt Reservation—to Division of Protection (DoD) jurisdiction.
This can permit for the fast building of latest border obstacles, deployment of superior surveillance programs, and the institution of “Nationwide Protection Areas” the place army forces may have full operational authority.
“The southern border is underneath siege,” President Trump declared in an accompanying assertion. “Weak management in Washington has allowed legal aliens, drug traffickers, and hostile actors to flood into our nation unchecked. In the present day, we’re taking again management. We’ll now not tolerate lawlessness, and we’ll use each device at our disposal—together with our army—to defend the American folks.”
The order invokes 43 U.S.C. 155, a provision permitting the federal authorities to withdraw public lands for nationwide protection functions, bypassing bureaucratic hurdles which have beforehand stalled border safety efforts.
Moreover, the memorandum builds on Govt Order 14167, signed on Inauguration Day 2025, which explicitly duties the army with “repelling the invasion” and sealing the border from illegal entry.
CALIFORNIA (Nov. 30, 2018) Lance Cpl. Victor Vargas, a fight engineer with seventh Engineer Help Battalion, Particular Goal Marine Air-Floor Activity Drive 7, emplaces concertina wire on the California-Mexico Border, Nov. 30, 2018. U.S. Northern Command is offering army help to the Division of Homeland Safety and U.S. Customs and Border Safety to safe the Southern border of the US. (U.S. Marine Corps picture by Lance Cpl. Brendan Mullin/Launched)
Critically, the directive empowers army commanders to exclude people from designated zones, successfully making a hardened safety perimeter the place trespassers—together with activists, human traffickers, and unlawful crossers—might face fast detention or expulsion.
BREAKING: President Donald Trump authorizes the U.S. army to occupy and take jurisdiction over public land alongside the U.S./Mexico border pic.twitter.com/vmVmyak1wN
— America (@america) April 11, 2025
