Ariz. border land passed to U.S. Navy as future 'National Defense Area'

UPI

4 days ago

1 of 2 | The transfer of Arizona land along the southern border will, according to federal officials, allow the Navy Department to aid U.S. Customs and Border Protection to further secure the border and "reduce unlawful border traffic and its adverse effects on natural and cultural resources." File Photo (2001) By Chris Corder/UPI | License Photo
July 23 (UPI) -- The federal government on Wednesday switched ownership of hundreds of acres of land in Arizona to the U.S. Navy, and it was designated as the future site of a special militarized area to be used in America's southern border immigration efforts.
The U.S. Department of the Interior said Interior Secretary Doug Burgum signed off on on the jurisdictional transfer of roughly 285 acres in Yuma County to the U.S. Department of the Navy to be used "in direct support of border security operations," according to officials. The public land will pass hands for a three-year period while construction presses on to establish a so-called "National Defense Area" to align with President Donald Trump's hardline immigration policies.
"By making this land available for border infrastructure improvements and defense operations, we are closing critical security gaps, stopping illegal activity and protecting both our nation and its natural resources from the damage caused by unchecked illegal immigration," Burgum claimed in a statement.
Burgum, North Dakota's former Republican governor, invoked powers under the 1976 Federal Land Policy and Management Act to withdraw the public space from its federally protected status.
Officials said it lies along the U.S.-Mexico border in a desert region known for "persistent illegal cross-border activity."
The department explained that then-President Theodore Roosevelt, a noted conservationist, in 1907 put the desert region in a public trust to combat cross-border smuggling.
The transfer, according to federal officials, will allow the Navy Department to assist efforts by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents to further secure the southern border and "reduce unlawful border traffic and its adverse effects on natural and cultural resources."
The Trump administration has been confiscating border land for months in the name of national security.
Meanwhile, the U.S. government controls about 33% of land abutting its southern border. But that includes Native American reservations largely exempt from most federal statues.
It comes as the Pentagon in recent months ordered the creation of a string of "buffer zones" along the U.S.-Mexico border where military personnel can apprehend non-citizens.
Interior argues that without the federal government's action the area will "not only present national security risks," but may also cause "significant environmental harm to sensitive desert ecosystems."
The secretary justified the change over as being about "law and order, national sovereignty and using our public lands to defend the American people."