A political party that historically positioned itself as a proponent of “states' rights” now advocates a massive federal takeover of state lands.
Speaking to Newsmax on Friday, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum suggested that the next course of action to limit immigration across the U.S. southern border should include handing over California's “strips” to the federal government.
“We have the opportunity to take a strip of land right along the border, turn it over to the military for three years. And then if someone crosses into our country and steps on it, they're stepping on a military installation,” Burgum. said. “It gives our troops who are there working to secure that border more authority to detain people. If they set foot on that soil, it will help improve security.”
This escalation about a plan the White House adopted earlier this year in which it took a 60-foot-wide strip of federal land across three states and turned the entire region into a “military installation.” This effectively allowed Donald Trump to circumvent the Posse Comitatus Act by bypassing Congress and using the military for border control.
The designation of the military base was supposed to expand the powers of the troops, giving them the ability to “temporarily detain intruders” and “conduct cursory searches of intruders…to ensure the safety of U.S. military personnel and Department of Defense (DoD) property.”
But even this attempt was unsuccessful. In May, a federal judge charges dropped against nearly 100 immigrants who the administration said entered a “national defense” zone, finding that the government could not prove the immigrants knew they were entering a closed military zone.
California's land grab could be an even bigger disaster. In the same interview, Burgum, the former governor of North Dakota, suggested that the best place to usurp public land would be “near the Pacific Ocean” because the region is a “high traffic area.”
