NM US Attorney says 82 people facing newly created criminal charge for entry along NM-Mexico border
From left to right: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, U.S. Border Patrol Chief Michael Banks and United States Attorney for New Mexico Ryan Ellison stand along the New Mexico-Mexico border in a recent visit to tout recent border arrests. (Photo courtesy USAO)
The United States Attorney in New Mexico announced Thursday that 82 people are facing brand new criminal charges aimed at cracking down on illegal crossings where Mexico shares a border with New Mexico.
A recent land transfer from the Department of Interior to the Department of Defense effectively made the 170-mile stretch of United States-Mexico border in southwest New Mexico into a military base, authorizing federal troops to detain and transfer individuals to federal law enforcement for criminal charges, according to a news release.
Those who are arrested in the 60-foot buffer zone can face charges for 'unauthorized entry into the New Mexico National Defense Areas,' according to charging documents, a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in prison.
The names of the 82 individuals charged were not immediately available, though federal court records show that U.S. Attorney Ryan Ellison, who was named as the United States Attorney for New Mexico on April 18, personally signed 28 charging documents for named defendants on April 28.
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'The Department of Justice will work hand in glove with the Department of Defense and Border Patrol to gain 100% operational control of New Mexico's 170-mile border with Mexico,' Ellison said in a news release. 'Trespassers into the National Defense Area will be Federally prosecuted—no exceptions.'
United States Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Border Patrol Chief Michael Banks joined Ellison for a 'high-level visit' April 25. They touted the newly created criminal charge as a way to leverage 'expanded military and prosecutorial authority to deter unlawful border crossings,' according to the news release.
Standing on the newly created National Defense Area in New Mexico on April 25, Hegseth warned that anyone caught there would be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
If you try to come in illegally as a cartel, or you try to smuggle or traffic. You will be detained by a member the U.S. military, and you will be handed over to US Customs and Border Patrol, and then you will be prosecuted by the US DOJ, and then you will be charged to the maximum extent of the law,' Hegseth said, according to video he posted to social media.
The buffer zone along the U.S.-Mexico border in New Mexico, Arizona and California is known as the 'Roosevelt Reservation' and excludes areas of private or tribal land. Now that it's under control of the Defense Department, it's treated as an extension of the U.S. Army Garrison Fort Huachaca in Cochise County, Arizona.
Rebecca Sheff, an attorney with the ACLU of New Mexico, said in an April 22 news release that the newly created military buffer zone 'represents a dangerous erosion of the constitutional principle that the military should not be policing civilians.' She also said U.S. citizens who live near the border could be prosecuted under the newly created statutes.
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