An Ecuadorian man has become the first migrant to be convicted of entering the new military zone at the southern border in Texas.
Dario Javier Trejo-Burbano faces up to a year in prison after trespassing into the U.S. through the newly designated National Defense Area—a restricted military zone established by the Department of Defense under the administration of President Donald Trump this year.
Why It Matters
The Department of the Interior announced in April that it was handing the U.S. Army control of nearly 110,000 acres of public lands along the border with Mexico for three years.
The move was part of Trump’s crackdown on immigration and his election campaign promise to “seal the border.”
What To Know
Trejo-Burbano on Wednesday was convicted of one count of improper entry by an alien and one count of entering military property after encroaching the zone on May 8.
The charges typically carry a sentence of up to six months in prison apiece, plus fines.
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Walter N. Slosar, Border Patrol chief for the El Paso sector, told Kvia.com that Trejo-Burbano was the first successful conviction of a migrant for trespassing into the Texas National Defense Area.
Court documents say that there were notices forbidding entry, written in both English and Spanish, and placed at least every hundred feet along the border.
Since the new zones—also stretching across California, Arizona and New Mexico—were designated in April, federal prosecutors have filed misdemeanor criminal charges of violating national security regulations and entering restricted military property against at least 400 immigrants, a local ABC News affiliate reports.
But federal magistrate judges have dismissed many of those charges, as they found little evidence that the immigrants knew about the zones.
The 60-foot-wide strip of land along the border is overseen by Army commands including Fort Huachuca in Arizona. This reclassification grants the Army’s U.S. Northern Command expanded authority to enforce immigration laws, including the power to search and temporarily detain those who trespass in the new military zone.
What People Are Saying
Ryan Ellison, U.S. attorney for the District of New Mexico: “We believe very much that the implementation of this National Defense Area is going to serve as a buffer between what’s going on south of the border and what’s going on in the United States of America.”
Trump said, in a national security presidential memorandum in April: “Our southern border is under attack from a variety of threats. The complexity of the current situation requires that our military take a more direct role in securing our southern border than in the recent past.”
What Happens Next
Border crossings have significantly dropped under the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration. Authorities appear focused on conducting searches in American cities, including recent high-profile U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in Los Angeles.
