NonilexHe’s running afoul of the #PosseComitatusAct with the “#NationalDefenseArea” formerly known as Roosevelt Reservation in NM too. He has learned laws don’t apply to him, because they never have.
The federal government recently added to that footprint by creating a second #military installation that extends 50 miles from Fort Bliss in El Paso.
Local officials said they were still unsure where the military’s #authority now began & ended in the unmarked vastness of the Southwest’s open, public spaces.
#law #immigration #Trump #NationalDefenseArea #PublicLands
Judge Wormuth’s ruling:
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nmd.520568/gov.uscourts.nmd.520568.5.0.pdf
…In April, the #Trump admin declared the border strip would be treated as an extension of the Fort Huachuca Army base in eastern Arizona.
But the #Army has ended up taking jurisdiction over at least 170 square miles of #PublicLands — far more than some in #NewMexico had anticipated. At some points, the new #NationalDefenseArea appears to stretch three miles into the US, far exceeding the original 60-foot corridor, according to estimates from local officials.
Since the #NationalDefenseArea was established, volunteers who scour the desert for the remains of perished migrants have started to worry they could be arrested. Hikers determined to traverse the 3,100-mile Continental Divide Trail to Canada face legal uncertainties, since their trek begins or ends at the border. Hunters who frequent the wide-open #PublicLands in the area are worried about running into active-duty #troops when out stalking quail or white-tailed deer.
…The judge’s ruling did not address the larger questions that have swirled through the heavily Democratic state of #NewMexico since the #Trump admin began expanding its legal powers & #military presence on the southwestern border.
“It’s just a bunch of desert,” said Carlos Ibarra, a defense atty. “They’re just coming over the same as usual, & all of a sudden, it’s #military charges….”
Judge Wormuth appeared to agree, dismissing many of the charges in a flurry of orders issued late on Wed. Nearly identical charges against hundreds of other migrants could also soon be thrown out, given what the judge described as the prosecution’s “cut-&-paste approach to factual allegations.”
“The United States provides no facts from which one could reasonably conclude that the Defendant knew he was entering” the #NewMexico #NationalDefenseArea, the newly declared military installation, Judge Wormuth ruled.
Defense lawyers said some migrants were arrested before the govt put up signs warning that the area was restricted, lawyers said. Others crossed between signs, arrived exhausted in the dark or were unable to read the warnings, lawyers said.
The order from a federal magistrate judge, Gregory B. Wormuth, added to the confusion & legal turmoil that have gripped #NewMexico in the month since #Trump declared a ribbon of land along the 180-mile length of the state’s southern border to be an Army base.
An effort by the #Trump admin to #arrest #undocumented immigrants for trespassing on a newly declared #NationalDefenseArea along #NewMexico’s border w/ #Mexico may be unraveling after a federal judge this week began dismissing charges against nearly 100 people arrested under the new tactic.
#law #immigration
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/15/us/new-mexico-border-trump.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=p&pvid=5C904357-D812-40AE-900F-00D7173924A6
Judge Dismisses ‘Trespassing’ Charges Promoted by Trump in Border ‘Defense Area’
A newly designated “military installation” that stretches the length of the frontier in New Mexico has made trespassing a novel criminal charge at the border, bringing turmoil to the state. A judge says migrants couldn’t know they were trespassing.
The #Defense-related charge alleges that migrants “willfully violated the order issued on April 18, 2025, by the US #Army Garrison #FortHuachuca #military commander designating the #NewMexico #NationalDefenseArea, also known as the #RooseveltReservation, as both a restricted area & a controlled area under Army Regulation 190-13,” which prohibits unauthorized entry.
#immigration #criminal #law #Trump #military #LandGrab #MilitaryZone #autocracy #stratocracy