Inside the “National Defense Areas”: A Podcast with Investigative Reporters Sonner Kehrt and David Roza

In January 2025, the Trump administration declared a national emergency at the southern border and directed the military to take control of large expanses of the border, which include major cities like El Paso, McAllen, and Brownsville, and designate them as “National Defense Areas”. In a recent Border Chronicle investigation “A War Zone: Minus the War” with the nonprofit The War Horse, which serves military communities, we examined the impact this is having on border residents, the types of military surveillance and hardware being rolled out in the national defense zones, and the impact these zones are having on the military and migration at the border, including federal prosecutors attempting to charge migrants for trespassing.For this discussion, I joined Sonner Kehrt an investigative reporter with The War Horse, and David Roza, an independent journalist, who covers the U.S. military to talk about our collaboration, and catch you up on more recent military developments, including the Davis-Monthan Air Force base in Tucson hosting Space Force Guardians and Fort Huachuca near Sierra Vista, Arizona, which is developing a new mission for U.S. Space Force, whose somewhat bizarre official song— yes, this is real— you can listen to here.