By KOB
Updated: May 20, 2025 – 3:19 PM
Published: May 20, 2025 – 3:00 PM
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – New Mexico hunters and hikers may want to reconsider any trips they have planned near the southern border.
A spokesperson for the Department of Defense told USA Today that hunting and hiking in the new national defense area along the southern border is now banned.
KOB 4 reached out to the Department of Defense to verify that information and get further details. A spokesperson responded with a previous statement from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth which he made in April.
“This is Department of Defense property,” Hegseth said. “Any illegal [attempt] to enter that zone is entering a military base — a federally protected area. You will be detained. You will be interdicted by U.S. troops and border patrol working together.”
Democratic U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich sent a letter to the Department of Defense last week with several questions on how U.S. citizens would be impacted by the new national defense area.
Today, a spokesperson for Senator Heinrich told KOB 4 there has been no formal response to that letter. Senator Heinrich issued his own response to the USA Today report in a statement to KOB 4.
“To tell New Mexicans that they will now be arrested for hiking and hunting on the land they have forged their identities on is deeply insulting and un-American,” said Senator Heinrich. “These are places where families have returned year after year to hunt quail, teach their kids how to track Coues deer, and find peace and perspective in the stillness of the desert. These landscapes hold our stories, our traditions, and our sense of belonging. We cannot and will not let this stand.”
The Trump administration transferred oversight of a strip of land along the U.S.-Mexico border last month to the military, allowing federal prosecutors to charge migrants with trespassing on military land.
A federal judge in Las Cruces dismissed dozens of military trespassing charges last week ruling there was little evidence that migrants saw any signs warning about the new national defense area.
Exposing the Big Game 