South Texas county judge calls military border zone 'drastic'

ALAMO, Texas (Border Report) -- Standing atop an earthen levee just north of the Rio Grande and near the famous Santa Ana National Wildlife Refugee, environmentalist Scott Nicol wondered Friday where signs indicating that this area is now a military zone would go. And if people would notice them, or face arrest.

"Where are they going to put it? Look around," said Nicol surrounded by mesquite trees and hardy drought-resistant thick brush.

Nicol took a stroll atop the levee with Border Report, which now is part of a new military zone that the Air Force says spans 250 miles in Hidalgo and Cameron counties of deep South Texas.

"It is very concerning because the whole part of this announcement is to restrict access – to make sure that people can’t get anywhere near the river, can’t get across the river. What does that also mean for residents? Does it mean the entire Rio Grande Valley is cut off from the river, which is the lifeblood of our region?” Nicol said.

The federal lands -- previously under management by the International Boundary and Water Commission -- were transferred Wednesday by the General Services Administration, an IBWC official confirmed to Border Report.

The lands now are part of Joint Base San Antonio, a facility nearly 250 miles away.

Establishing these new National Defense Areas along the Southwest border are “designed to support the Department of Defense’s ongoing mission to secure the southern border in coordination with inter-agency and partner stakeholders," the Air Force said in a statement.

But Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez on Friday told Border Report it's a "drastic" move, annd one of which he had no knowledge.

“We have an issue that we haven’t been able to resolve with immigration and I think that this is kind of a drastic way of addressing it," Cortez said.

Cortez, who is the top elected official in a county of 1 million people, said on Friday that federal officials told Hidalgo County Sheriff Eddie Guerra that it's meant as an extra layer of border security.

“It’s all federal land and basically our understanding is it allows the military to be able to go in there and do surveillance of the property and anyone illegally trespassing they can withhold them. They cannot arrest them but they can withhold them and turn them over to other authorities," Cortez said.

That means that anyone caught on these lands can be arrested and charged with trespassing – a criminal misdemeanor punishable by up to 18 months in prison.

This new military zone comes as the Trump administration wants to completely shut down the border to those trying to illegally cross into the country.

The Trump administration in April established two NDAs in West Texas, in El Paso, and along the entire New Mexico border with Mexico. According to severeal reports, a fourth NDA is being established along the Arizona-Mexico border near Yuma that will be considered an extension of of Marine Corps Air Station.

Over 2,100 signs in English and Spanish have been posted along that military zone.

The Air Force says it is "prepared to immediately install signage and fencing" along the new National Defense area in the Rio Grande Valley.

But Nicol worries that the area will extend well past the river and the shoreline of the Rio Grande.

As a longtime environmentalist, he has mapped the borderlands and he says there are just about 100 miles of shore on the river in Hidalgo and Cameron counties. He worries that additional land that IBWC had managed -- including internal levees used for flood control, miles from the border -- might also be included in the new military zone in the Rio Grande.

The Associated Press reports that the Navy also has been instructed to establish a new national defense area at the border.