Rachel Maddow Calls Trump’s 170-Mile U.S. Border-Mexico Military Base a ‘Big Red Flag’ of ‘Authoritarian Takeover’ | Video

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow called out President Donald Trump’s administration for quietly turning 170 miles of the United States border into a military base, which is the latest move in Trump’s efforts to crack down on illegal immigration, saying his effort is huge warning sign of authoritarian rule.

The journalist jumped right into her take on Trump’s second 100 days in office on Monday night’s episode of “The Rachel Maddow Show” by outlining the details of Trump’s military zone, which she said has yet to become a “major issue” but soon will be.

“I want to put a little focus on things that have not yet emerged as major issues, but heads up, they’re coming,” Maddow prefaced, sharing that this month Trump signed off on what’s being called a National Security Presidential Memorandum, a message declaring that three neighboring states — New Mexico, Arizona and California — are now part of a military base.

“In this memo, Trump ordered the Pentagon, the Defense Department, to start taking control of this land. So now the U.S. military has taken control of 170 miles of land, starting in New Mexico, along new New Mexico’s southern border,” Maddow explained. “And they have declared that that land is now part of Fort Huachuca, which is a U.S. army base that’s not even in New Mexico. It’s in Arizona. Why would you take 170 miles of land in three different states and say all that land is now part of an army base somewhere very far away? It’s because he wants active duty service members to start arresting people on U.S. soil.”

She went to explain that as of last week, the military now has the power to “arrest anyone who steps foot on that 170-mile-long strip of land.” Per a note from the U.S. Northern Command, soldiers can “temporarily detain trespassers,” “conduct cursory searchers of trespassers” and “conduct crowd control measures.”

That’s when she shared that she believes the orders are some of the early signs of Trump’s attempts to turn the U.S. into an authoritarian-operated nation.

“We may not think of this as something that matters for broader U.S. politics, or indeed the health of our political system,” Maddow said. “But if you’re looking for big red flags in terms of authoritarian takeover in a democratic rule of law country, when you’ve got U.S. troops searching and arresting people and doing ‘crowd control’ on U.S. soil, you’re kind of there.”

Maddow goes on to explain that while the Posse Comitatus, a 19th century law that blocks the military from participating in everyday civil law enforcement, Trump has appeared to have found a loophole, as he has designated three states as a military zone.

“Under American law, the Posse Comitatus Act is supposed to prevent the U.S. government from using U.S. soldiers on U.S. soil,” Maddow said. “Theoretically, if somebody wonders onto a military base they can be arrested as trespassers on military property. So the idea here, I think, the neat trick that Trump has pulled here is that he’s just turned hundreds of miles of American soil into what is technically a military base. So hey, presto, that’s one unique trick to give the U.S. the power to search and arrest people on U.S. soil. And right now, they are only doing it at the edges, the physical edges of our country. But that is how you start.”

You can watch the full “Rachel Maddow Show” clip in the video above.

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