From the American Homefront Project:
At the foot of the Organ Mountains in southern New Mexico, Ángel Peña is hiking along a rocky trail surrounded by spiny desert shrubs.
The mountains here – jagged rocky spires that jut into the air – are known as the “front teeth” of the smile. And that toothy grin makes up part of the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument, one of the many public lands the state is known for.
“This place is alive in all sorts of ways,” Peña said, rattling off the range of wildlife found in the region, including oryx, mule deer, and quail.
But Peña, who works with the conservation nonprofit Nuestra Tierra, is worried that more public lands like this will be stripped away. Earlier this year, federal land next to the National Monument was transferred to the Department of Defense.
“This has always belonged to the people, and now it doesn’t,” said Peña.
Since April, the Trump Administration has established four national defense areas, which include sites in New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas – accounting for more than 510 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border. On these stretches, Army personnel now are detaining people they suspect of entering the country illegally. They’re being charged with trespassing onto military sites.
Peña says the deployment of thousands of active-duty troops, along with heavily-armored vehicles, and now the establishment of national defense areas has put border communities on edge.
“The effect that the NDA is having has no boundary,” said Peña, who said he’s heard from ranchers and hunters concerned over the military zones and worried they’ll accidentally trespass on them.
“This is creating real anxiety for folks up and down, not only New Mexico, but Arizona, Califas, Colorado, Texas.”
In the towns near the military zone in New Mexico, some residents said they’re indifferent to the Army’s presence because they’re used to a degree of security and surveillance.
Others, though, said their presence isn’t warranted.
Since late April, trespassing charges have been filed against more than 1,300 people in New Mexico, and another 1,400 in the El Paso area.
When announcing some of the first charges stemming from national defense areas, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said “the border space that DOD is allowed to take actions inside is growing and growing.”
“The number of national defense areas will continue to climb, the barbed wire will climb, the troops will climb,” said Hegseth. “If you trespass, you will be charged.”
However, the trespassing charges have been met with mixed results: some have led to convictions, while judges have dismissed others.
And the Trump Administration established these military zones at a time when illegal border crossings were already trending down.
