Trump Orders Defense Department to Occupy Public Lands Along Border

WASHINGTON, DC – The Trump administration yesterday announced an emergency transfer of nearly 110,000 acres of land along the U.S.-Mexico border from the Department of the Interior to the Army. Last week, Donald Trump directed the Department of Defense to occupy the Roosevelt Reservation, the land along the southern border of the United States which includes land within the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge, Coronado National Memorial, and Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. Last month, Donald Trump deployed around 500 troops to parts of West Texas, including Big Bend National Park.

In response, Sherman Neal II, Deputy Campaign Director of Sierra Club Military Outdoors, said:

“Militarizing America’s parks is not the answer to any problem; doing so only prevents families and communities from freely and safely accessing our public lands. By transferring control over Interior Department public lands to the military, the Trump administration is wasting taxpayer money and endangering servicemembers and local communities. Communities and ecosystems will suffer irreversible harm if our borderlands become battlefields as the administration attempts to advance a false narrative that militarizing our parks is somehow necessary for national security.”

In response, Erick Meza, Sierra Club Arizona Chapter’s Borderlands Coordinator, said: 

“The deployment of the military to our public lands is a costly distraction from the real issues that affect communities along our border with Mexico. With Arizonans already grappling with the impacts of the climate crisis, economy, drought, and more, militarizing the places where people recreate and find joy only adds an additional burden. It will also further harm our fragile border landscapes. The borderlands are biodiversity hotspots, not battlefields. Each new wall segment or military incursion further fractures our parks, our public spaces, and our communities.”