The government says the 100km long Texas Defense Region runs east from El Paso’s Texas-New Mexico border.
The US military created a second military zone along the border with Mexico, following another newly designated zone in New Mexico last month, adding an area in Texas where the military can temporarily detain immigrants or trespassers.
The announcement of the new military camp comes as President Donald Trump has launched an active anti-immigrant crackdown, has vowed to increase troops at the tropical borders and deport millions of people from the United States since he took office.
Some of the people deported by the Trump administration included children who were American citizens.
The US military said late Thursday that it had established the “Texas Defense Region” on a 100-kilometer (63-mile) strip that runs east of El Paso’s Texas New Mexico border.
According to the Pentagon, US military can detain immigrants within the zone, and detainees are then handed over to other civil law enforcement agencies or other civil law enforcement agencies that have jurisdiction over illegal border intersections.
In April, the Trump administration designated a 270km (60ft x 170 miles) long strip along its New Mexico base as a “defense area.”
A total of 82 immigrants have been accused of going to New Mexico’s military zone so far, according to the US Lawyer’s Office. The US military did not detain any of them and was dealt with by CBP officials.
The military zone aims to allow the Trump administration to use the military to detain immigrants.
Currently, approximately 11,900 US troops are stationed on the border with Mexico. The number of immigrants illegally crossing the US in March fell to the lowest ever recorded, according to government data.
Greg Abbott, a Republican with Texas governor, posted a photo of the construction of a razor wire barrier at the border on Thursday, saying “Texas will work with the Trump administration to stop illegal immigration.”
Since 2021, Abbott has deployed the state National Guard and police on border security.
But New Mexico Governor Michel Lejean Grisham is opposed to what she called her state’s “deportation buffer zone.”
In a social media post in March, Democrats called it “a waste of resources and military personnel, especially when the intersection of immigration is at the lowest in decades.”
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