The first illegal immigrant tried for entering the newly created military zone along the southern U.S. border was found not guilty on June 5.
Peruvian national Adely Vanessa De La Cruz-Alvarez, 21, was arrested in May in West Texas after entering the United States from Mexico by walking across the Rio Grande riverbed, according to court documents. While she was convicted by a jury of entering the country illegally and faces deportation, she also faced a second charge of entering restricted military property, a petty misdemeanor, of which the jury found her not guilty.
Scores of other illegal immigrants have been facing that trespassing charge after President Donald Trump created the militarized zones along the southern border as part of his administration’s strategy to crack down on illegal immigration.
Federal magistrate judges in New Mexico had already dismissed similar cases, stating that they found very little evidence that the illegal immigrants knew about the military zones.
Over in El Paso, Texas, De La Cruz-Alvarez was the first to be tried on the charge. Her trial was handled by U.S. Magistrate Judge Laura Enriquez, who also dismissed a third charge against her for violating a security regulation on June 4.
De La Cruz-Alvarez’s attorney, Veronica Teresa Lerma, told The Texas Tribune: “Hopefully, this sets the tone for the federal government, so they know what the El Paso community will do with these charges.”
Despite the verdict, the office of U.S. Attorney Justin Simmons of the Western District of Texas will continue to prosecute National Defense Area violations.
“At the end of the day, another illegal alien has been found guilty of illegally entering the country in violation of the improper entry statute and will be removed from the United States,” Simmons said in a statement. “That’s a win for America.”
In April, the first military zone was established along a 60-foot-wide corridor known as the Roosevelt Reservation, which spans the borderlands of New Mexico, Arizona, and California.
Around 11,900 troops are stationed on the border, according to the Department of Defense, with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection retaining jurisdiction over illegal border crossings.
Since the Trump administration began, illegal immigration levels have fallen to their lowest level in decades.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
