New Mexico’s National Defense Area Prosecutions Threaten Due Process and Clog Courts, New Brief Finds

LAS CRUCES, NM – After one year since the creation of National Defense Areas, a new brief published today by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico found that the military’s takeover of land along the U.S.-Mexico border has given federal prosecutors a dangerously overbroad tool for filing criminal “trespassing” charges, raising serious due process concerns.

The brief, “The ‘Invisible’ Military Bases at the Border,” calls for congressional oversight, increased transparency by federal agencies, and legal reforms.

In a deeply alarming expansion of executive power, federal agencies have relied on President Trump’s emergency declaration to convert more than 40% of land on the U.S.-Mexico border into restricted military zones. The Department of Defense (DOD) effectively treats these zones – including 109,651 acres in New Mexico alone – as extensions of military bases, but they are not fenced-in or well-marked by signage, and the government has not provided the public with accurate maps of the zones.

“President Trump’s Department of Justice is aggressively trying to circumvent the law by prosecuting people for entering these military zones even when people have no idea that they crossed into a restricted area,” said Rebecca Sheff, senior staff attorney with the ACLU of New Mexico. “Judges in New Mexico have thrown out these trespassing charges wherever they could, but it has not stopped prosecutors from doubling down on this scheme. Their bottom line here is that once again, the federal government is using New Mexico as a testing ground to expand the criminalization of migrants.”

Since the creation of the first National Defense Area in southern New Mexico in April 2025, federal judges have been slammed with over 4,600 cases alleging “trespassing” violations against migrants who enter the militarized zones, with one judge assigned more than 400 cases in less than a month.

The brief offers a roadmap for policymakers at the federal level, including recommendations for:

• Congress to investigate and conduct meaningful oversight on the establishment of the National Defense Areas and the DOD’s assertion that it has the authority to apprehend, detain, and search people within these zones.

• The DOD to proactively publish accurate maps depicting the boundaries of the National Defense Areas.

• Congress to reform the Federal Land Policy and Management Act and the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act to establish meaningful safeguards against “emergency” land transfers.

"Congress needs to step up and curb this executive overreach,” said Sheff. “These military zones were created without any meaningful oversight, and people are being dragged into court on charges the government knows it can't prove. At minimum, lawmakers should be demanding answers — holding hearings, visiting these sites, and requiring the DOD and DHS to report on what's actually happening with these prosecutions."

The full brief is available below.