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The U.S. military established national defense areas around El Paso. The boundaries remain unclear. [1]

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Date: 2025-05-27

Six weeks after the military took control of two swaths of land along the U.S.-Mexico border in New Mexico and West Texas, the boundaries of the so-called “national defense areas” remain unclear.

The move stemmed from a memo issued by President Donald Trump to allow the military to help halt the flow of migrants entering the United States even though the number of people crossing the southern border illegally began plummeting last year.

However, it’s also unclear what consequences U.S. citizens who might accidentally trespass on the two national defense areas may face since they haven’t been publicly defined.

The Defense Department established the Texas National Defense Area in El Paso and Hudspeth counties May 1, transferring land that had been under control of the International Boundary and Water Commission to Fort Bliss. The area stretches 63 miles from the American Dam at the New Mexico-Texas state line in West El Paso to the Fort Hancock Port of Entry in Hudspeth County.

In mid-April, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management handed over control of almost 110,000 acres of land along the border in New Mexico to the U.S. Army for three years.

A Border Patrol vehicle parked across the border wall from the Rio Bosque wetlands park. (Diego Mendoza-Moyers / El Paso Matters)

A Fort Bliss spokesman said the militarized zone in Texas covers about 2,000 acres and that it varies in distance from the U.S.-Mexico international boundary, with the area as narrow as 130 feet and as wide as 1,000 feet. In New Mexico, the national defense area spans over 100,000 acres across the state’s entire southern border, varying from 60 feet to as much as 3.5 miles in width, the spokesman said.

See Also El Paso ICE processing center detainees face ‘widespread human rights violations,’ Amnesty International report finds The ICE El Paso Service Processing Center has “substandard or inhumane detention conditions” that do not meet international standards for detention – or its own, according to a new report by Amnesty International.

It’s possible that some or most of the new militarized zones in both states fall within the strip of land between the U.S.-Mexico international boundary and the border wall. That gap varies in size but is generally inaccessible to the public.

Still, in both states, it’s not clear where along the border the national defense areas widen, and where they stretch past the border wall into U.S. territory.

The military task force in charge of establishing the new national defense zone didn’t respond to calls and emails from El Paso Matters seeking information about the boundaries of the militarized areas.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials also didn’t respond to questions from El Paso Matters. Neither did U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, who represents much of the Texas National Defense Area.

Military zone at Rio Bosque Wetlands Park?

The Rio Bosque Wetlands Park, near Socorro in far East El Paso County, is a popular area for walking and birdwatching that’s owned and operated by El Paso Water.

But the city-owned utility couldn’t say whether the park, which directly abuts the border, is part of the Texas National Defense Area. There are currently no signs at the park warning about the newly-established military zone.

The Rio Bosque wetlands park directly abuts the U.S.-Mexico border. El Paso Water, which owns and operates the park, said it hasn’t heard from federal officials about whether the park is part of a newly-established military zone in El Paso. (Diego Mendoza-Moyers / El Paso Matters)

“El Paso Water has not received any notice or guidance from the current administration or state officials,” El Paso Water said in a statement. “In the meantime, the utility will continue supporting the Rio Bosque Wetlands Park to help preserve this open space for the community’s enjoyment.”

Militarizing the border

Last week, an El Paso federal magistrate judge tossed out 16 misdemeanor charges alleging that people illegally trespassed on military land. The judge said the government didn’t make it clear the migrants – who were arrested for illegally entering the U.S. – were aware they were also trespassing on military property. Signs that the military posted facing toward Mexico were unreadable, the judge said.

Related El Paso judge dismisses charges against border crossers accused of violating military rules Federal Magistrate Miguel Torres said the government didn’t show that it had provided signs in “conspicuous and appropriate places” warning that migrants were breaking military regulations by crossing the border.

The migrants remained in federal custody because they were also charged with entering the United States after previously being removed from the country, which is a felony punishable by up to two years in prison. The dismissed misdemeanor charges carried a maximum penalty of a year in prison.

Near Marker 4, east of the Texas-New Mexico state line, a sign visible through a telephoto lens on May 12, 2025, warns that the U.S. Department of Defense has taken over the area. The sign is not legible to the naked eye from the Mexican riverbank. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)

The fact the boundaries of national defense areas have been undefined publicly means U.S. citizens and migrants don’t have a way of knowing whether they’re trespassing in the new military zones, said Colleen Putzel-Kavanaugh, an associate policy analyst with the Migration Policy Institute.

“We haven’t heard of any reporting of U.S. citizens being arrested for trespassing on a military base. But the reality is that could be a possibility, whether someone is intentionally or unintentionally crossing into the area,” Putzel-Kavanaugh said.

“It is problematic if the military is not defining clear boundaries, because then how would someone know that they are in fact trespassing?” she said. “It seems as though one of the things that was lost in the setup is the clearly defined demarcations, which it would be the responsibility of the military and the government to clearly mark those areas for immigrants and U.S. citizens alike.”

See Also Migrant drug seizures by Border Patrol incredibly rare, data shows Only 31 of the nearly 1 million migrants encountered by El Paso sector Border Patrol agents over three years were found carrying drugs; none were found with fentanyl.

CBP officials reported apprehending between 11,000 to 12,000 migrants along the southern border from February through April, well below the numbers in previous years when officials reported more than 200,000 encounters in some months.

The move to establish the militarized areas allows the administration to get around the Posse Comitatus Act, which has historically barred the military from domestic law enforcement activities.

“One of the efforts seems to be really toward being able to add additional charges beyond illegal entry, or illegal re-entry, with the trespassing charges on a military base,” Putzel-Kavanaugh said. “It increases the removability of someone.”

A Stryker combat vehicle maintains surveillance in the Texas National Defense Area, a military zone that the Department of Defense established from El Paso to Fort Hancock, on May 12, 2025. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)

The Defense Department said Thursday it’s sending another 1,100 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border, adding to the roughly 9,000 active-duty soldiers currently stationed along the border.

Part of that deployment of troops includes the Stryker armored vehicles that the Army has set up at various points around El Paso, such as along the border highway and on the desert mesa west of the city.

“The administration’s argument seemingly is that the military has been a part of these border encounters going down. But the reality is that border encounters were dropping even before President Trump came into office,” Putzel Kavanaugh said. “So, the utility of what’s happening seems, more than anything at this point, to be a show of force.”

The U.S. International Boundary and Water Commission said last week that it rescinded hunting access in an area spanning from Herring Road in San Elizario southeast to the international crossing in Fort Hancock. The land, a bird hunting location, is now administered by the U.S. Army, according to IBWC.

Left: A map issued by the International Boundary and Water Commission showing locations that were previously accessible for the 2024-2025 hunting season, before the U.S. Army took control of the land. Right: A map issued last week by IBWC showing areas where it rescinded hunting access after the establishment of the new border military zone. (IBWC)

The Defense Department also banned hunting and hiking in the national defense area in New Mexico.

Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-New Mexico, sent a letter last week to U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.

Heinrich listed questions about public access to the militarized zone in New Mexico, and whether federal officials would clearly mark off-limits areas. Heinrich has asked whether a driver on Highway 9, which runs near the border in southern New Mexico, would be trespassing in the NDA if they pulled over and stepped off the road.

As of Friday, Hegseth hadn’t responded to the letter, according to a spokeswoman for Heinrich.

“The United States of America now has the dubious distinction of joining China, Russia, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, North Korea in having a highly militarized border. This doesn’t increase our safety or security – it is in fact an abuse of our military personnel and assets,” U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, said in a statement. Escobar’s office likewise didn’t have information about the boundaries of the national defense areas.

With the national defense areas established, Putzel-Kavanaugh said one possible outcome will be that migrants seeking to enter the U.S. will shift to try to cross near the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas, or west of El Paso in Arizona or California.

“It does seem as though this is an arm in the larger effort to deport larger numbers of people during this administration,” she said.

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[1] Url: https://elpasomatters.org/2025/05/27/where-is-el-paso-texas-national-defense-area-boundaries-fort-bliss/

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