Latest news with #borderenforcement
Al Jazeera
4 days ago
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Photos: US military expands enforcement role at Mexican border under Trump
Published On 25 Jul 2025 25 Jul 2025 United States troop deployments at the border with Mexico have tripled to 7,600 and include every branch of the military – even as the number of attempted illegal crossings plummets. In addition, President Donald Trump has authorised funding for an additional 3,000 Border Patrol agents, offering $10,000 signing and retention bonuses. The military mission at the border is guided from a new command centre at a remote Army intelligence training base located alongside southern Arizona's Huachuca Mountains. There, a community hall has been transformed into a bustling war room, where battalion commanders and staff use digital maps to pinpoint military camps and movements along the nearly 3,200-kilometre (2,000-mile) border. Until now, border enforcement had been the domain of civilian law enforcement, with the military only intermittently stepping in. But in April, large swaths of the border were designated militarised zones, empowering US troops to apprehend immigrants and others accused of trespassing and authorising additional criminal charges that can mean prison time. The two-star general leading the mission says troops are being untethered from maintenance and warehouse tasks to work closely with US Border Patrol agents in high-traffic areas for illegal crossings – and to deploy rapidly to remote, unguarded terrain. 'We don't have a [labour] union. There's no limit on how many hours we can work in a day, how many shifts we can man,' said Army Major-General Scott Naumann. 'I can put soldiers out whenever we need to in order to get after the problem, and we can put them out for days at a time. We can fly people into incredibly remote areas now that we see the cartels shifting [course].' The Trump administration is using the military broadly to boost its immigration operations, from guarding federal buildings in Los Angeles against protests, to assisting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Florida. There are also plans to hold detained immigrants on military bases in New Jersey, Indiana and Texas. Dan Maurer, a law professor at Ohio Northern University and a retired US Army judge advocate officer, said that Trump is aiming to follow through on his campaign promise to crack down on undocumented border crossings. 'It's all part of the same strategy that is a very muscular, robust, intimidating, aggressive response to this – to show his base that he was serious about a campaign promise to fix immigration,' said Maurer. 'It's both norm-breaking and unusual. It puts the military in a very awkward position.'
Yahoo
22-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
'Flood' of ICE agents is coming to cities run by Democrats, White House warns
White House border czar Tom Homan is promising to "flood" cities run by Democrats with immigration agents, as the Trump administration ramps up border enforcement. Congress earlier this month gave the Trump administration more than $170 billion over the next four years to dramatically scale up enforcement, detention and deportation, and Homan said Americans living in so-called "sanctuary cities" can expect to see far more agents on the street soon. "We're going to flood the zone," Homan said at a July 21 press conference. "Sanctuary cities get exactly what they don't want: more agents in the community and more agents in the work site. When we arrest (a suspected illegal immigrant) in the community, if he's with others that are in the country illegally, they're coming too." Sanctuary cities won't help with ICE arrests The White House has repeatedly singled out cities from Los Angeles to Denver to Boston for their refusal to assist ICE agents making detentions, and Homan has threatened to arrest elected officials who stymie the president. Migrant-rights groups warn increased enforcement raises the risk of more civil rights violations and violent confrontations, like the chaotic protests that broke out in Los Angeles last month following Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids at a Home Depot, among other locations. Homan spoke in New York City after an off-duty Border Patrol agent was injured during an attempted robbery that officials say was committed by an undocumented immigrant. Homan and other White House officials argue the agent would never have been hurt if his alleged assailant had previously been blocked from entering the country or deported. Trump officials have long complained that many cities run by Democrats refuse to honor requests to detain people on behalf of ICE in local jails, and Homan said doing so makes it harder for ICE to arrest "bad guys" in the safety of a detention center. He said making street arrests is more dangerous for everyone, requiring more personnel to operate safely. Federal officials say there's been an 800% increase in assaults against immigration agents, although they have declined to release comprehensive data. Last month, Trump deployed the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles to help protect federal buildings and assist ICE agents in making detentions, a move that temporarily escalated tensions. ICE has conducted immigration enforcement actions around the country, but it's yet to focus a sustained effort in any particular sanctuary city outside of the Los Angeles area. Budget balloons for immigrant arrests and detentions The federal spending plan, among other things, provides funding for 10,000 new Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to help carry out Trump's plan to deport 1 million people annually. Trump won the White House after campaigning on a platform that included dramatically stricter immigration enforcement and border controls, and the federal funding plan he signed July 4 provides money to dramatically expand the number of ICE agents on the streets, $45 billion for more than 100,000 new detention beds for people facing deportation, $46.6 billion for border wall construction and $10 billion in additional Homeland Security funding. ICE now has a bigger budget than the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, U.S. Marshals Service and the Bureau of Prisons combined, according to an analysis by the American Immigration Council. Public has begun pushing back against Trump's immigration policies The increased funding for one of Trump's signature policies comes as the American public appears to be growing increasingly concerned about the tactics being deployed. A July 20 poll by CBS/YouGov found that 56% of Americans disapproved of the president's immigration measures, while 44% approved, a 10-point drop from February. While Trump and Homan argue that anyone living illegally in the United States is by definition a criminal, federal statistics show that only about 36% of current ICE detainees have ever been convicted of a crime, while 31% have pending criminal charges and the remaining 33% are facing just immigration violations, according to analysis by Austin Kocher, a Syracuse University research assistant professor who tracks ICE data. The nonprofit American Immigration Council criticized the massive funding expansion, which came without any fundamental reform to the nation's immigration process. Many immigrants living in the United States entered under policies that were legal at the time, or have been waiting years for the chance to apply for citizenship. 'Throwing billions at detention centers and enforcement agents is short-sighted. Instead, we should be investing in a system aimed at welcoming immigrants that contribute billions to our economy,' said Adriel Orozco, senior policy counsel at the American Immigration Council. 'We don't need more jail beds and indiscriminate raids. We need balanced solutions that strengthen due process and keep families together.' This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Democrat cities should expect 'flood' of ICE agents: White House Solve the daily Crossword
Associated Press
15-07-2025
- Politics
- Associated Press
Immigration agency flexes authority to sharply expand detention without bond hearing
SAN DIEGO (AP) — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has moved to detain far more people than before by tapping a legal authority to jail anyone who entered the country illegally without allowing them a bond hearing. Todd Lyons, ICE's acting director, wrote employees on July 8 that the agency was revisiting its 'extraordinarily broad and equally complex' authority to detain people and that, effective immediately, people would be ineligible for a bond hearing before an immigration judge. Instead, they cannot be released unless the Homeland Security Department makes an exception. The directive, first reported by The Washington Post, signals wider use of a 1996 law to detain people who had previously been allowed to remain free while their cases wind through immigration court. Asked Tuesday to comment on the memo, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said, 'The Biden administration dangerously unleashed millions of unvetted illegal aliens into the country — and they used many loopholes to do so. President (Donald) Trump and Secretary (Kristi) Noem are now enforcing this law as it was actually written to keep America safe.' McLaughlin said ICE will have 'plenty of bed space' after Trump signed a law that spends about $170 billion on border and immigration enforcement. It puts ICE on the cusp of staggering growth, infusing it with $76.5 billion over five years, or nearly 10 times its current annual budget. That includes $45 billion for detention. Greg Chen, senior director of government relations at the American Immigration Lawyers Association, began hearing from lawyers across the country last week that clients were being taken into custody in immigration court under the new directive. One person who was detained lived in the United States for 25 years. While it won't affect people who came legally and overstayed their visas, the initiative would apply to anyone who crossed the border illegally, Chen said. The Trump administration 'has acted with lightning speed to ramp up massive detention policy to detain as many people as possible now without any individualized review done by a judge. This is going to turn the United States into a nation that imprisons people as a matter of course,' Chen said. Matt Adams, legal director of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, said the administration is 'adopting a draconian interpretation of the statute' to jail people who may have lived in the U.S. for decades, have no criminal history and have U.S. citizen spouses, children and grandchildren. His organization sued the administration in March over what it said was a growing practice among immigration judges in Tacoma, Washington, to jail people for prolonged, mandatory periods. Lyons wrote in his memo that detention was entirely within ICE's discretion, but he acknowledged a legal challenge was likely. For that reason, he told ICE attorneys to continue gathering evidence to argue for detention before an immigration judge, including potential danger to the community and flight risk. ICE held about 56,000 people at the end of June, near an all-time high and above its budgeted capacity of about 41,000. Homeland Security said new funding will allow for an average daily population of 100,000 people. In January, Trump signed the Laken Riley Act, named for a slain Georgia nursing student, which required detention for people in the country illegally who are arrested or charged with relatively minor crimes, including burglary, theft and shoplifting, in addition to violent crimes.
Yahoo
05-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Militarized zones now make up 1/3 of southern border, stirring debates
COLUMBUS, N.M. (AP) — Orange no-entry signs posted by the U.S. military in English and Spanish dot the New Mexico desert, where a border wall cuts past onion fields and parched ranches with tufts of tall grass growing amidst wiry brush and yucca trees. The Army has posted thousands of the warnings in New Mexico and western Texas, declaring a 'restricted area by authority of the commander.' It's part of a major shift that has thrust the military into border enforcement with Mexico like never before. The move places long stretches of the border under the supervision of nearby military bases, empowering U.S. troops to detain people who enter the country illegally and sidestep a law prohibiting military involvement in civilian law enforcement. It is done under the authority of the national emergency on the border declared by President Donald Trump on his first day in office. U.S. authorities say the zones are needed to close gaps in border enforcement and help in the wider fight against human smuggling networks and brutal drug cartels. The militarization is being challenged in court, and has been criticized by civil rights advocates, humanitarian aid groups and outdoor enthusiasts who object to being blocked from public lands while troops have free rein. Abbey Carpenter, a leader of a search-and-rescue group for missing migrants, said public access is being denied across sweltering stretches of desert where migrant deaths have surged. 'Maybe there are more deaths, but we don't know,' she said. Two militarized zones form a buffer along 230 miles (370 kilometers) of border, from Fort Hancock, Texas, through El Paso and westward across vast New Mexico ranchlands. The Defense Department added an additional 250-mile (400-kilometer) zone last week in Texas' Rio Grande Valley and plans another near Yuma, Arizona. Combined, the zones will cover nearly one-third of the U.S. border with Mexico. They are patrolled by at least 7,600 members of the armed forces, vastly expanding the U.S. government presence on the border. Reaction to the military buffer has been mixed among residents of New Mexico's rural Luna County, where a strong culture of individual liberty is tempered by the desire to squelch networks bringing migrants and contraband across the border. 'We as a family have always been very supportive of the mission, and very supportive of border security,' said James Johnson, a fourth-generation farmer overseeing seasonal laborers as they filled giant plastic crates with onions, earning $22 per container. Military deployments under prior presidents put 'eyes and ears' on the border, Johnson said. This version is 'trying to give some teeth.' But some hunters and hikers fear they're being locked out of a rugged and cherished landscape. 'I don't want to go down there with my hunting rifle and all of a sudden somebody rolls up on me and says that I'm in a military zone,' said Ray Trejo, a coordinator for the New Mexico Wildlife Federation and a Luna County commissioner. 'I don't know if these folks have been taught to deescalate situations.' A former public school teacher of English as a second language, Trejo said military trespassing charges seem inhumane in an economy built on immigrant farm labor. 'If the Army, Border Patrol, law enforcement in general are detaining people for reasons of transporting, of human smuggling, I don't have a problem,' he said. 'But people are coming into our country to work, stepping now all of a sudden into a military zone, and they have no idea.' Nicole Wieman, an Army command spokesperson, said the Army is negotiating possible public access for recreation and hunting, and will honor private rights to grazing and mining. More than 1,400 migrants have been charged with trespassing on military territory, facing a possible 18-month prison sentence for a first offense. That's on top of an illegal entry charge that brings up to six months in custody. After that, most are turned over to U.S. Customs and Border Protection for likely deportation. There have been no apparent arrests of U.S. citizens. At a federal courthouse in Las Cruces, New Mexico, on the banks of the Upper Rio Grande, migrants in drab county jail jumpsuits and chains filed before a magistrate judge on a recent weekday. A 29-year-old Guatemalan woman struggled to understand instructions through a Spanish interpreter as she pleaded guilty to illegal entry. A judge set aside military trespassing charges for lack of evidence, but sentenced her to two weeks in jail before being transferred for likely deportation. 'She sells pottery, she's a very simple woman with a sixth-grade education,' a public defense attorney told the judge. 'She told me she's going back and she's going to stay there.' Border Patrol arrests along the southern border this year have dropped to the lowest level in six decades, including a 30% decrease in June from the prior month as attempted crossings dwindle. On June 28, the Border Patrol made only 137 arrests, a stark contrast with late 2023, when arrests topped 10,000 on the busiest days. The first militarized zones, introduced in April and May, extend west of El Paso past factories and cattle yards to partially encircle the New Mexico border village of Columbus, and its 1,450 residents. It was here that Mexican revolutionary forces led by Pancho Villa crossed into the U.S. in a deadly 1916 raid. These days, a port of entry at Columbus is where hundreds of children with U.S. citizenship cross daily from a bedroom community in Mexico to board public school buses and attend classes nearby. Columbus Mayor Philip Skinner, a Republican, says he's seen the occasional military vehicle but no evidence of disruption in an area where illegal crossings have been rare. 'We're kind of not tuned in to this national politics,' Skinner said. Oversight is divided between U.S. Army commands in Fort Bliss, Texas, and Fort Huachuca, Arizona. The militarized zones sidestep the Posse Comitatus Act, an 1878 law that prohibits the military from conducting civilian law enforcement on U.S. soil. Russell Johnson, a rancher and former Border Patrol agent, said he welcomes the new militarized zone where his ranch borders Mexico on land leased from the Bureau of Land Management. 'We have seen absolutely almost everything imaginable that can happen on the border, and most of it's bad,' he said, recalling off-road vehicle chases on his ranch and lifeless bodies recovered by Border Patrol. In late April, he said, five armored military vehicles spent several days at a gap in the border wall, where construction was suspended at the outset of the Biden presidency. But, he said, he hasn't seen much of the military in recent weeks. 'The only thing that's really changed is the little extra signage,' he said. 'We're not seeing the military presence out here like we kind of anticipated.' Federal public defenders have challenged the military's new oversight of public land in New Mexico, seizing on the arrest of a Mexican man for trespassing through remote terrain to test the legal waters. They decried the designation of a new military zone without congressional authorization 'for the sole purpose of enabling military action on American soil' as 'a matter of staggering and unpreceded political significance.' A judge has not ruled on the issue. In the meantime, court challenges to trespassing charges in the militarized zone have met with a mixture of convictions and acquittals at trial. Ryan Ellison, the top federal prosecutor in New Mexico, won trespassing convictions in June against two immigrants who entered a militarized zone again after an initial warning. 'There's not going to be an issue as to whether or not they were on notice,' he told a recent news conference. American Civil Liberties Union attorney Rebecca Sheff says the federal government is testing a more punitive approach to border enforcement with the new military zones and worries it will be expanded border-wide. 'To the extent the federal government has aspirations to establish a much more hostile military presence along the border, this is a vehicle that they're pushing on to potentially do so. … And that's very concerning,' she said.
Washington Post
04-07-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
US expands militarized zones to 1/3 of southern border, stirring controversy
COLUMBUS, N.M. — Orange no-entry signs posted by the U.S. military in English and Spanish dot the New Mexico desert, where a border wall cuts past onion fields and parched ranches with tufts of tall grass growing amidst wiry brush and yucca trees. The Army has posted thousands of the warnings in New Mexico and western Texas, declaring a 'restricted area by authority of the commander.' It's part of a major shift that has thrust the military into border enforcement with Mexico like never before.
