Marine Corps troops weld and install concertina wire along the U.S.-Mexico Tijuana-San Diego Beach border last month. (Carlos Moreno/Anadolu via Getty Images)
"Our southern border is under attack from a variety of threats," Trump wrote in the memorandum. "The complexity of the current situation requires that our military take a more direct role in securing our southern border than in the recent past."
The federal land, which consists of a narrow, 60-foot-deep strip at the border within the Roosevelt Reservation, would become a "military installation" designated as "National Defense Areas" where "military activities" would occur.
The Roosevelt Reservation covers California, New Mexico and Arizona and was designated as federal land by Theodore Roosevelt in 1907 to keep the border secure. (Carlos Moreno/Anadolu via Getty Images)
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Trump campaigned on securing the border and "mass deportations" and has focused on both in the first months of his presidency.
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