Southern border crossings have dramatically decreased since Trump took office

Donald Trump’s administration has added a so-called militarized zone to the southern border wall in California as the president continues his crackdown on immigration.

The Department of the Interior announced Wednesday that it will transfer jurisdiction of about 760 acres of land in San Diego and Imperial Counties to the Navy for three years.

“By working with the Navy to close long-standing security gaps, we are strengthening national defense, protecting our public lands from unlawful use, and advancing the President’s agenda to put the safety and security of the American people first,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a statement.

The Interior Department says the region — which stretches from the western boundary of the Otay Mountain Wilderness Area to about one mile west of the California–Arizona state line — is a hot spot for illegal border crossings.

The move for tightened security comes as Trump boasts about how he closed the U.S.-Mexico border. At a rally Trump held to tout his economic agenda in Pennsylvania Tuesday night, he veered off topic to tell the crowd that the only country that has a stronger border than the U.S. is North Korea.

Southern border crossings have dramatically decreased since Trump took office. In January, there were more than 61,000 Customs and Border Protection encounters, and October saw about 11,700.

Militarized zones across the southern border are not new for the Trump administration. Since April, there have been hundreds of miles of national defense areas established along the border in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, according to the Associated Press. More than 7,000 troops have been deployed to the border, the AP reported.

Establishing these militarized zones means more potential punishments for migrants crossing the border. More than 1,400 migrants have been charged with trespassing on military territory, the AP reported in July. The trespassing charge carries a possible 18-month prison sentence on top of an illegal entry charge that could add six months behind bars.

The Trump administration has created these militarized zones under the authority of what he calls a national emergency at the southern border that the president declared on his first day in office.

“Our southern border is overrun by cartels, criminal gangs, known terrorists, human traffickers, smugglers, unvetted military-age males from foreign adversaries, and illicit narcotics that harm Americans,” Trump said in the declaration.

Trump’s immigration crackdown has also included Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids across the country, including in Los Angeles, to help carry out his campaign promise of mass deportations.

A new AP-NORC poll shows that Trump’s approval on immigration has declined substantially since March. Now, just 38 percent of Americans approve of Trump’s handling of immigration, while 60 percent disapprove.