President Trump Authorizes Military to Occupy Public Land Along US–Mexico Border and Repel Invasions

President Trump Invokes "Roosevelt Reservation" Putting Southern Border Under MILITARY Control. The directive excludes Federal Indian Reservations.

By Trent Walker

April 14, 2025

President Donald Trump has authorized the United States military to take full jurisdiction over federal lands along the U.S.–Mexico border in an aggressive push to seal the border and repel the ongoing invasion of illegal immigrants, traffickers, and cartel operatives.

President Donald Trump today invoked the "Roosevelt Reservation" along 700 miles of the US southern border, in California, Arizona, and New Mexico, and turned that land over to the Military!

The memorandum, National Security Presidential Memorandum/NSPM-4, directs the Secretaries of Defense, Interior, Agriculture, and Homeland Security to facilitate the immediate transfer of federal lands—including the Roosevelt Reservation—to Department of Defense (DoD) jurisdiction.

This will allow for the rapid construction of new border barriers, deployment of advanced surveillance systems, and the establishment of “National Defense Areas” where military forces will have full operational authority.

“The southern border is under siege,” President Trump declared in an accompanying statement.

“Weak leadership in Washington has allowed criminal aliens, drug traffickers, and hostile actors to flood into our country unchecked.”

“Today, we are taking back control. We will no longer tolerate lawlessness, and we will use every tool at our disposal—including our military—to defend the American people.”

The order invokes 43 U.S.C. 155, a provision allowing the federal government to withdraw public lands for national defense purposes, bypassing bureaucratic hurdles that have previously stalled border security efforts.

Additionally, the memorandum builds on Executive Order 14167, signed on Inauguration Day 2025, which explicitly tasks the military with “repelling the invasion” and sealing the border from unlawful entry.

Critically, the directive empowers military commanders to exclude individuals from designated zones, effectively creating a hardened security perimeter where trespassers—including activists, human traffickers, and illegal crossers—could face immediate detention or expulsion.

Invoking a day-one proclamation from President Trump declaring a national emergency at the southern border, the memo says the Secretary of the Interior must “provide for” the Defense Department’s “utilization of public lands,” specifically including “portions of the Roosevelt Reservation” — a strip of land that reaches from California to Texas designated for border security in 1907.

The directive excludes Federal Indian Reservations.

Federal land has been transferred to military jurisdiction before — including to the Army Department multiple times during Trump’s first term — with similar goals to secure the southern border and construct border barriers.

The creation of the National Defense Areas could allow the government to treat any illegal border crossing as similar to trespassing on a military base, according to Newsweek.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is directed to assess an initial phase of the memorandum within 45 days of its signing, but is permitted to “extend activities” “at any time” under the memo “to additional Federal lands along the southern border in coordination with” the Department of Homeland Security “and other executive departments and agencies as appropriate.”

WHAT TRUMP'S ACTION DOES.

According to Hal Turner:

Now, if an illegal alien, Drug Smuggler, or Human Trafficker enters that area, the military can grab him without involving civilian law enforcement or civilian courts! No more District Court Judges interfering!!

The "Roosevelt Reservation" makes a 60-foot-wide section along the US Border, federal-controlled property.

The map below shows the area involved:

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is directed to start with the phased implementation of the military on limited sections of public land.

But Hegseth has the authority to expand beyond that to any of the public land on the southern border.

During a cabinet meeting with President Trump this week, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem touted low numbers of illegal crossings at the southern border.

Noem said that for the second month in a row, the U.S. broke the record for the lowest number of encounters at the border.

President Trump issued a blitz of executive actions, when he took office in January to start reshaping federal immigration and border policies.

On his first day, he declared a national emergency at the southern border.

In March, preliminary government data obtained by CBS News showed that the number of migrants crossing the U.S. southern border illegally in President Trump's first full month in office plunged to a level not seen in at least 25 years.

What's Next

President Trump's 2017 policies also saw a noticeable dip in border crossings, but the numbers soon began climbing again.

The next few months will be crucial in showing whether the President's 2025 policies have a more long-lasting impact.

This is a developing news story and will be updated as more information is available.

READ MORE:

FORTRESS USA: How President Donald Trump is securing the US frontier with Mexico with 10,000 troops, finishing the wall & giant BUOYS

President Trump says U.S. government should maintain a “kill list of drug lords”

President Trump’s Acting Deputy Attorney General Said to Order All US Attorneys Prosecutors Moved to the Border

The Alien Enemies Act of 1798: An Explainer of the Law President Trump May Invoke

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