Fort Bliss, Texas — On March 28, 2025, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth signed off on the construction of a migrant holding facility at a location formerly known as “Site Monitor” on the exterior of Fort Bliss. The 60-acre site is transforming into a holding area for 10,000 migrants awaiting deportation.

Two weeks later, the White House released National Security Presidential Memorandum-4. NSPM-4 authorizes members of the Armed Forces to detain migrants crossing through Federal land along the border and it is currently within its “implementation phase.”

This new memorandum grants Title 32 National Guardsmen the unprecedented ability to enforced immigration policy that was once exclusive to Customs and Border Patrol Officers. With the introduction of this new policy and the creation of this new holding area, there are concerns that soldiers on Title 32 orders may be detaining and imprisoning migrants while they await deportation.

U.S. Army Maj. Jennifer Staton, a spokesperson for the Defense Department, said that Immigration and Customs Enforcement does regularly set up temporary holding facilities on Fort Bliss. ICE has made no comments on the number of migrants they plan to hold at this facility or when the new detention center would open.

As the number of U.S. forces on the border continues to increase and new powers to detain migrants are implement, one wonders what role they will evolve into.