EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – The U.S. military presence along the Texas-Mexico border isn’t going away anytime soon. In fact, it may expand.
And migrants who said they didn’t know they stepped into one of the so-called National Defense Areas and subsequently got those charges thrown out in court are not going free. They’re being charged with illegal entry or illegal reentry, and most are being removed from the country, anyway.
That was the message federal officials gathered in El Paso to defend the newly designated NDAs relayed on Wednesday. They also said the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State are working on an international media campaign to inform people about these areas and the consequences of trespassing on the military domains next to border wall in Southern New Mexico and Far West Texas.
“These NDAs are not going away,” said Justin R. Simmons, interim U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas. “The charges from my office related to these NDAs are not going away. They make the country safer, and when people feel safe, they can thrive, not just survive, and that’s what we want for the American people.”
Simmons, whose district stretches from north of San Antonio to El Paso and Del Rio, Texas, said the military-controlled areas are part of a whole-of-government approach that is making the U.S.-Mexico border safer.
“(Migrant) encounters by Border Patrol over the last several years were several thousand a day. That has dropped to 60 to 70 per day. That’s an amazing decline in encounters. It shows what we’re doing out here works,” Simmons said.
Simmons was among numerous federal and state law enforcement officials who gathered near the Rio Grande to defend the use of troops to guard the Mexican border and to charge in federal court those who trespass on their domain.
This comes as federal judges in New Mexico and in El Paso have tossed out trespassing cases after migrants argued they did not know about the NDAs or saw no signs to warn them.
The U.S. Border Patrol says 2,155 signs, in English and in Spanish, have been placed along the border wall in the El Paso Sector warning people they are stepping on military territory.
The Trump administration created the border military reservations — which vary in width from 60-feet to 1 mile — earlier this year by transferring Department of the Interior land to the Department of Defense. It also created Joint Task Force-Southern Border, whose soldiers patrol them, and allowed for the presence of armored military vehicles such as the M1126 Stryker.
The move alienated civil rights and migrant advocacy organizations worried about human rights abuses and a growing and unnecessary militarization of the border.
U.S. Attorney for the District of New Mexico Ryan Ellison acknowledged some of the 500-plus prosecutions related to the NDAs brought by his office are being dismissed, but will be appealed.
“As you know, there is a high level of recidivism when it comes to border crossings. Each and every person apprehended on a National Defense area is put on notice. They’re advised by Border Patrol, they are shown a form, they sign a form that goes into their immigration file,” Ellison said. “So, the next time they cross the border unlawfully, there’s going to be no issue as to whether or not they were on notice they stepped into an NDA, regardless if they saw the sign or not.”
The New Mexico NDA runs from the border with Arizona to the border with Texas. It is considered an extension of Fort Huachuca, Arizona, home to Joint Task Force-Southern Border (JTF-SB). The El Paso NDA is an extension of Fort Bliss, Texas, and runs along the border wall from the New Mexico state line to near Fort Hancock, Texas.
Lt. Col. Chad Campbell, battalion commander of the 2nd Stryker Brigade of the 1st Battalion, 41st Infantry Regiment of the 4th Infantry Division taking part in JTF-SB, said soldiers in the mission have received training on use of force in the NDAs and typically don’t apprehend the migrants or smugglers.
He said soldiers notify the Border Patrol so its agents can conduct the apprehension within a three-minute span. Sometimes, the soldiers hold border crossers for those few minutes. He declined to outline the places NDAs extend inland beyond sight of the border wall.
JTF-SB Public Affairs Officer Maj. Geoffrey Carmichael said additional military reservations are planned along the Mexican border but declined to confirm another 90-mile long NDA is planned elsewhere in Texas.
“While we as JTF-SB can inform some of those conversations with our intelligence, our analysis in coordination with Border Patrol, I can’t speculate where those additional NDAs are going to be. What I can tell you is there will be additional NDAs across the southern border,” Carmichael said.
El Paso Sector Interim Chief Patrol Agent Walter N. Slosar said the Rio Grande, the State of Texas concertina wire barrier, the border wall and the law enforcement and military presence alone tells migrants they shouldn’t be present in the area.
Nonetheless, the Border Patrol plans to disseminate information south of the border about the NDAs through social media and other means.
“We want everybody to know this is the National Defense Area. You cannot cross through here […] You will face charges, we will repatriate you as far away from the border environment and the smuggling cycle as we can,” Slosar said.
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