In April, 110 000 acres of land “an area seven times the size of Manhattan “ was transferred to the US Army for three years from the Bureau of Land Management.

A second was created in May with a transfer of International Boundary and Water Commission land in Texas. The two so-called "National Defense Areas" are satellites of army bases in Arizona and Texas.
That gives troops the right to hold and question civilian trespassers without the need for US President Donald Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act. The Army has not made public the zones' boundaries.

Rancher Russell Johnson says he is unsure if his home, or over half his ranch, is inside the area.

"If the national defense area truly does go up to Highway Nine. I live, my house, is south of Highway Nine. So in theory, I live within the national defense area. Probably close to half of my ranch is in the national defense area. And there's been no communications to me other than you will have no issues doing what you've been doing for the last hundred years," Johnson said.

Johnson, a former Border Patrol agent who has testified to the US Congress about illegal border crossers, welcomes the zone as an extra layer of security.

--Reuters--