Summary & Purpose

U.S. border enforcement has increasingly extended beyond the geopolitical boundary, producing a militarized landscape in which immigration enforcement, national security, and environmental protection intersect. This article examines the environmental implications of the U.S. “100-Mile Zone,” the area extending inward from the nation’s international borders where federal immigration authorities exercise expanded enforcement powers. Situating the analysis within scholarship on militarized landscapes and the “spatial stretching” of borders, the article considers how the expansion of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) authority has transformed both the geography of immigration enforcement and the governance of protected lands. Using original spatial analysis, this study maps federally and state-protected lands within the 100-Mile Zone and finds that approximately 41 percent of its land area is subject to some form of environmental protection. As immigration enforcement increasingly operates within the nation’s interior, understanding border militarization requires attention not only to its consequences for people and civil liberties, but also to its implications for conservation, wildlife, and environmental governance.

Author Identifier

Carolyn Koehn, ORCID: 0000-0001-9189-5396

Lisa Meierotto, ORCID: 0000-0003-2075-4718

Date of Publication or Submission

9-17-2026

DOI

https://doi.org/10.18122/pubadmin_data.2.boisestate

Data Source Credits

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Gap Analysis Project (GAP), 2022, Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US) 3.0 (ver. 2.0, March 2023): U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P9Q9LQ4B.

Single Dataset or Series?

Series

Data Format

*.tif, *.xml, *.csv, *.pdf, *.R, *.txt

File Size

8.53 MB

Data Attributes

See README.txt

Time Period

2023

Privacy and Confidentiality Statement

Boise State is explicitly compliant with federal and state laws surrounding data privacy including the protection of personal financial information through the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, personal medical information through HIPAA, HITECH and other regulations. All human subject data (e.g., surveys) has been collected and managed only by personnel with adequate human subject protection certification.

Use Restrictions

Users are free to share, copy, distribute and use the dataset; to create or produce works from the dataset; to adapt, modify, transform and build upon the dataset as long as the user attributes any public use of the dataset, or works produced from the dataset, referencing the author(s) and DOI link. For any use or redistribution of the dataset, or works produced from it, the user must make clear to others the license of the dataset and keep intact any notices on the original dataset.

Code in the us_100mi_buffer_analysis_and_map_figures.R file is licensed under the GNU General Public License 3.0:

Copyright (C) 2026 Carolyn Koehn

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see .

PDF maps are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Disclaimer of Warranty

BOISE STATE UNIVERSITY MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS ABOUT THE SUITABILITY OF THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN OR PROVIDED AS PART OF THE SYSTEM FOR ANY PURPOSE. ALL SUCH INFORMATION IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. BOISE STATE UNIVERSITY HEREBY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES AND CONDITIONS WITH REGARD TO THIS INFORMATION, INCLUDING ALL WARRANTIES AND CONDITIONS OF MERCHANTABILITY, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.

IN NO EVENT SHALL BOISE STATE UNIVERSITY BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF INFORMATION AVAILABLE FROM THE SYSTEM.

THE INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE SYSTEM COULD INCLUDE TECHNICAL INACCURACIES OR TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS. CHANGES ARE PERIODICALLY ADDED TO THE INFORMATION HEREIN. COMPANY AND/OR ITS RESPECTIVE SUPPLIERS MAY MAKE IMPROVEMENTS AND/OR CHANGES IN THE PRODUCT(S) AND/OR THE PROGRAM(S) DESCRIBED HEREIN AT ANY TIME, WITH OR WITHOUT NOTICE TO YOU.

BOISE STATE UNIVERSITY DOES NOT MAKE ANY ASSURANCES WITH REGARD TO THE ACCURACY OF THE RESULTS OR OUTPUT THAT DERIVES FROM USE OF THE SYSTEM.

Comments

Lisa Meierotto is the author of the associated manuscript and project leader.  Carolyn Koehn is the primary creator of the dataset.

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