WaPo - (archived: https://archive.ph/IPAtM ) First migrants charged with entering restricted military zone at border

The Justice Department has begun the first criminal prosecutions of migrants who breach a newly expanded military zone at the southern border that is patrolled by U.S. troops.

1:50 p.m. April 29. 2025

By Maria Sacchetti, Jeremy Roebuck and Dan Lamothe

The Justice Department has begun the first criminal prosecutions of migrants who breach a newly expanded military zone at the southern border that is patrolled by U.S. troops, threatening people with additional penalties for crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally.

At least 28 migrants were charged Monday with crossing into the 170-mile long “National Defense Area,” a 60-foot strip of land that stretches across the bottom of New Mexico and has effectively been turned into part of a U.S. military installation. Prosecutors added the new charge of violating security regulations in U.S. District Court in Las Cruces to the more common misdemeanor of entering the United States illegally.

Both crimes are punishable by a year or less in prison. But Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a visit to the border in New Mexico last week that migrants could face more prison time for illegal crossings. Standing on a dusty stretch along the border Friday, he held up signs he said were being posted in English and Spanish warning migrants against entering the military zone.

“You cross our border illegally, you will see them,” he said of the signs on April 25, wearing olive drab and a baseball cap, speaking to cameras for footage later posted to the Defense
Department’s X account. “It’s clearly posted. And when you ignore them, you will be prosecuted.”

Hegseth said Friday that he met the U.S. Attorney in New Mexico, Ryan Ellison, and that the prosecutor “can’t wait” to begin charging those who cross into the area. Spokespeople for Ellison’s office and the Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the new charges.

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