Trump granting military control of federal border lands could circumvent the law

President Donald Trump's memorandum on April 11 ordering the military to take control of a swath of federal land along the southern border is part of an escalating series of actions by the White House to crack down on U.S.-Mexico border crossings. But it may also be an attempt by Trump to skate around federal law.

The memorandum would give the military jurisdiction over the Roosevelt Reservation, a 60-foot-wide strip of land that stretches along the southern border from California to New Mexico.