A federal judge in New Mexico dismissed trespassing charges on Thursday against dozens of immigrants caught in a new military zone along the US-Mexico border. This decision deals a blow to the Trump administration‘s efforts to increase penalties for unlawful border crossings.
Chief US Magistrate Judge Gregory Wormuth started filing the dismissals late Wednesday, ruling that the immigrants did not know they had entered the military zone in New Mexico, according to court documents and a defense attorney.
Assistant federal public defender Amanda Skinner said Wormuth dismissed trespassing charges for all immigrants who appeared in court Thursday. However, these immigrants still face charges for crossing the border illegally.
“Judge Wormuth found no probable cause,” Skinner said in an email.
New Mexico US Attorney Ryan Ellison, who filed the initial trespassing charges against migrants on April 28, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The New Mexico national defense area was created in April along 180 miles (290 km) of the border. US Army troops were authorized to detain immigrants entering the zone from Mexico.
This month, a second buffer zone was established in Texas. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a social media post that the military plans to expand these zones to achieve “100% operational control” of the border.
US attorneys charged over 100 immigrants with illegal border crossing and trespassing in the military zones in New Mexico and Texas. According to Hegseth, combined penalties could reach up to 10 years in prison.
However, Judge Wormuth challenged the charges for the New Mexico immigrants, ordering Ellison on May 1 to provide proof that the immigrants knew they were unlawfully entering the military zone.
Defense attorneys argued that warning signs in the area were insufficient to inform immigrants that entering the zone was a crime, a view Wormuth agreed with.
“The criminal complaint fails to establish probable cause to believe the defendant knew he/she was entering” the military zone, Wormuth wrote in his dismissal orders.
The Department of Defense has yet to respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
