- by Graham Holton
- The Guardian
- Issue #2147
Photo: US Government
President Donald Trump has turned over to the Department of Defence the Roosevelt Reservation to be used as a military base. This sliver of federal land, 18 metres wide by 290 kilometres long, is a federal buffer zone that extends from California to New Mexico along the US-Mexico border. The base allows 3,000 troops, including a general support aviation battalion, to detain illegal migrants along the border. Using the land as an army base gets around the Posse Comitatus Act which forbids US troops to be used in domestic law enforcement on US soil. Technically these troops are protecting military installations from trespassers, allowing them to enforce immigration law. Dozens of people have already been detained.
Border experts and civil liberties advocates say it “is yet another aspect of Trump’s aggressive seizures of power, particularly when it comes to sealing the border and pursuing mass deportation of immigrants.” Vicki Gaubeca, associate director for US immigration and border policy at Human Rights Watch said “There’s a lot of human rights concerns around using the military, which is basically trained for war, versus using law enforcement that’s trained to do civilian enforcement.”
