Pentagon Expands Military Presence to Enforce Border Security in El Paso Area
The Pentagon has established an additional military zone in the El Paso region, which will be patrolled by U.S. soldiers as part of the Trump administration’s strategy to curb illegal crossings at the southern border, even as such incidents are currently at a historic low.
On Thursday, Northern Command announced that this new military zone will be integrated into the Fort Bliss Army base in El Paso. According to Maj. Geoffrey Carmichael, spokesman for the Joint Task Force – Southern Border, this area extends approximately 53 miles eastward to Fort Hancock, as reported by Stars and Stripes, a military publication.
“The creation of a second National Defense Area enhances our operational capabilities to deter illegal activities along the southern border,” stated Gen. Gregory Guillot, commander of U.S. Northern Command.
Last month, a 60-foot-wide strip along the New Mexico-Mexico border was labeled a military zone by the Pentagon. This week, more than 24 migrants faced federal charges for violating security protocols after being detected by the U.S. Army near this zone, which led to their arrest by Border Patrol agents. These charges are in addition to the misdemeanor of illegal entry into the U.S.
Geoffrey S. Corn, director of the Center for Military Law and Policy at Texas Tech University School of Law and a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, highlighted that for over 200 years, the federal government has typically barred the military from civilian law enforcement roles, recognizing that soldiers are not law enforcers.
“They’re trained as warriors,” Corn remarked.
Nonetheless, he noted, the Trump administration has cleverly found a way to utilize the military for immigration control without needing Congressional approval.
Under the Posse Comitatus Act, the military is forbidden from performing civilian law enforcement duties, but exceptions such as the military purpose doctrine permit this involvement in specific scenarios.
“Employing the military for border security purposes suggests a narrative of national invasion,” Corn explained. “Yet, the actual numbers reflect a decline in border crossings over recent times.”
In March, the Department of Homeland Security recorded encountering 1,627 migrants in the El Paso sector, which covers New Mexico’s entire border and includes El Paso and Hudspeth counties in West Texas. This figure represents an 87% drop since August 2024, initiating the current downward trend.
Aimée Santillán, a policy analyst with the Hope Border Institute in El Paso, voiced significant concern over the increasing “militarization” of the border.
“This escalation is alarming as it further criminalizes migrants seeking asylum and potentially impacts humanitarian aid efforts, amid soaring migrant deaths in the El Paso Border Patrol Sector,” Santillán noted.
Federal statistics gathered by No More Deaths, a Tucson-based migrant aid group, reveal that at least 176 migrants perished in the El Paso sector in 2024, continuing a daunting ten-year upward trend. In stark contrast, only one migrant death was recorded in the sector back in 2014.