{"id":7965,"date":"2025-04-16T16:50:49","date_gmt":"2025-04-16T21:50:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/?p=7965"},"modified":"2025-04-16T16:50:54","modified_gmt":"2025-04-16T21:50:54","slug":"from-defense-to-detention-the-u-s-armys-troubling-new-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/from-defense-to-detention-the-u-s-armys-troubling-new-role\/","title":{"rendered":"From Defense to Detention: The U.S. Army\u2019s Troubling New Role"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"\">A quiet but alarming shift is unfolding along the U.S.-Mexico border: the Department of Defense is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.armytimes.com\/news\/your-army\/2025\/04\/14\/us-army-to-control-federal-land-along-us-mexico-border\/\" title=\"\">assuming control<\/a> over federal land in a 60-foot-wide corridor known as the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Roosevelt_Reservation\" title=\"\">Roosevelt Reservation<\/a>. This buffer zone, which stretches from New Mexico to California, is being militarized under a new directive from the Trump administration\u2014potentially turning Army troops into de facto immigration enforcers in direct conflict with long-standing U.S. law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">This move, if fully realized, would give the U.S. Army control of the Roosevelt Reservation and transform the corridor into a military installation. Under that designation, troops could detain \u201ctrespassers\u201d\u2014including migrants\u2014without violating the Posse Comitatus Act, the federal law that restricts military involvement in civilian law enforcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">This is more than a legal loophole. It\u2019s a dangerous precedent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">The Department of Defense has already begun a 45-day test of this policy in New Mexico, near Fort Huachuca, Arizona. During this time, additional fencing is going up, warning signs are being posted, and the area is being patrolled by Army security. U.S. officials told the Associated Press that migrants detained by the Army will be handed over to local law enforcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Weaponizing the Border<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Trump Sends U.S. Army Stryker Armored Vehicles to the Mexico Border to Reinforce the Wall\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/maPjCJSD0x8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Let\u2019s be clear: this is not just about \u201cbase security.\u201d This is a political move to militarize the U.S.-Mexico border under the guise of national defense, further blurring the line between military operations and civil law enforcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">By treating federal borderlands as military bases, the administration is attempting to sidestep legal constraints and empower troops to enforce immigration law\u2014something traditionally reserved for civilian agencies like Customs and Border Protection (CBP) or Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Legal experts are already sounding alarms. Elizabeth Goitein of the Brennan Center for Justice points out that the so-called \u201cmilitary purpose doctrine\u201d allows military action only when law enforcement is incidental\u2014not the primary purpose. In this case, the order\u2019s intent is explicitly about securing the border and detaining migrants, a fact that undermines any claim to a legitimate military objective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>A Slippery Slope Toward Authoritarianism<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">This development is deeply troubling from a democratic and human rights perspective. It sets the stage for an unprecedented expansion of military authority over U.S. soil and civilian populations\u2014especially immigrants and asylum seekers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">At the Peace Economy Project, we believe that <strong>true national security is rooted in diplomacy, human dignity, and demilitarization\u2014not in erecting fences, deploying troops, or treating desperate people as enemy combatants<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">This aggressive policy not only violates the spirit of the law, it escalates fear and trauma in border communities, militarizes public land, and diverts military resources toward political theater instead of actual defense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">We urge our elected officials\u2014and the public\u2014to reject this militarization of the border. There is no military solution to migration. What we need are humane immigration policies, not tanks and troops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Take Action:<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li class=\"\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.house.gov\/representatives\/find-your-representative#:~:text=If%20you%20know%20who%20your,the%20U.S.%20House%20switchboard%20operator.\" title=\"\">Call your members of Congress<\/a><\/strong> and demand oversight of this policy.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"\"><strong>Support <a href=\"https:\/\/nnirr.org\/\" title=\"\">grassroots organizations<\/a><\/strong> working to protect migrants\u2019 rights.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"\"><strong>Join <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/?page_id=39\" title=\"\"><strong>Peace Economy Project<\/strong> <\/a>in calling for an end to militarized border policies and a return to human-centered diplomacy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Because the more we militarize borders, the more we erode the values we claim to defend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Army\u2019s new role on U.S. soil risks crossing a constitutional line\u2014raising urgent questions about civil rights and militarized borders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7967,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[316,317,227,318,319],"class_list":["post-7965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-border-security","tag-civil-rights","tag-militarization","tag-posse-comitatus","tag-u-s-mexico-border"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/pexels-photo-104764.jpeg?fit=867%2C1300&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7965"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7965\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7968,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7965\/revisions\/7968"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}