Roosevelt Reservation

{{Short description|Land owned by the US government along the US–Mexico Border}}

The Roosevelt Reservation is the {{convert|60|ft|m|adj=on}}-wide strip of land owned by the United States Federal Government along the United States side of the United States–Mexico Border in California, Arizona, and New Mexico. Federal and tribal lands make up {{convert|632|miles}}, or approximately 33 percent, of the nearly {{convert|2,000|miles}} of border. Private and state-owned lands constitute the remaining 67 percent of the border, most of which is located in the fourth state on the border with Mexico, Texas.{{citation |publisher= GAO |title= Southwest Border: Issues Related to Private Property Damage (GAO-15-399) |url= https://www.gao.gov/assets/670/669936.pdf |pages= 5–6 |date= April 2015}}

In 1907, Theodore Roosevelt in a Presidential Proclamation (35 Stat. 2136) established the reservation in order to keep all public lands along the border in California, Arizona, and New Mexico "free from obstruction as a protection against the smuggling of goods between the United States and Mexico".{{cite web|url=http://www.fws.gov/southwest/es/arizona/Documents/Biol_Opin/080011_LukevillePrimaryFence.pdf|title=Biological Opinion for the Proposed Installation of 5.2 Miles of Primary Fence near Lukeville, Arizona|last=Spangle|first=Steven L.|date=2008-02-11|publisher=U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service|page=3|access-date=2008-10-11}}{{cite web|url=http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/homesec/RL33659.pdf|title=Border Security: Barriers Along the U.S. International Border|last=Nuñez-Neto|first=Blas|author2=Kim, Yule |date=2008-05-14|publisher=Federation of American Scientists|page=24|access-date=2008-10-11}}{{cite web|url=http://www.theodore-roosevelt.com/images/research/trproclamations/758.pdf|title=text, Presidential Proclamation of May 27, 1907|last=Roosevelt|first=Theodore|date=1907-05-27|access-date=2017-11-15}} Texas was excluded because Texas retained all public lands upon the Texas annexation and admittance as a state, much of which has been sold over the years to private parties.

In 2019, the Trump administration announced a three-year transfer of land within the reservation from the Department of the Interior to the Department of Defense, for the construction of 70 miles of border wall.{{cite news |last1=Ebbs |first1=Stephanie |title=Interior Department transferring federal land to Army for border wall construction |url=https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/interior-department-transferring-federal-land-army-border-wall/story?id=65702870 |access-date=April 14, 2025 |work=ABC News |date=September 18, 2019}} Construction of the Mexico–United States border wall along the border in the states of California, Arizona, and New Mexico was expedited since the reservation reduced the need to acquire additional private property.{{Cite news|last=Burnett|first=John|date=December 11, 2020|title=Contractors Dynamite Mountains, Bulldoze Desert In Race To Build Trump's Border Wall|url=https://www.npr.org/2020/12/11/945194147/contractors-dynamite-mountains-bulldoze-desert-in-race-to-build-trumps-border-wa|access-date=2020-12-12|work=NPR News|language=en}} In April 2025, President Trump released a memorandum directing the U.S. military to take control of public land on the Roosevelt Reservation from the Interior Department to enhance security and build a border wall, citing various threats to the nation.{{Cite news|last1=Smolinski|first1=Paulina|last2=Frazier|first2=Kierra|date=April 11, 2025|title=Trump authorizes military to take control of public land along souther border|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-authorizes-military-control-souther-border/|access-date=2025-04-12|work=CBS News|language=en}}{{cite news |last1=Copp |first1=Tara |last2=Baldor |first2=Lolita C. |title=US Army to control land on Mexico border as part of base, migrants could be detained, officials say |url=https://apnews.com/article/border-trump-roosevelt-military-immigration-85974188a51593351eed70ad26291888 |access-date=April 14, 2025 |work=AP News |date=April 14, 2025}}https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/military-mission-for-sealing-the-southern-border-of-the-united-states-and-repelling-invasions/