Federal Judge DESTROYS Trump’s Attempt To Charge Migrants With Military Crimes

The Trump administration created a fake “military base” near the border in order to charge migrants with trespassing on a military base, but a federal judge was able to see right through their ruse. The judge dismisses military trespassing charges against roughly 100 individuals, though they still face the misdemeanor charges of entering the country illegally. But the tricks used by this administration aren’t holding up in court, and that’s a relief. Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins explains what happened.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

The Trump administration thought they had a clever way to charge undocumented people coming into the United States with a heftier crime than the regular misdemeanor, which is handled in civil court of illegally crossing the border. So what they did was they went over to New Mexico, took a span of, you know, a couple hundred, uh, square miles, and said, this area of total desert right on the border is now a military base. Now there is no base, right? There's no structure. It is literally desert. But by declaring it a military base, anyone who steps foot onto that area that has been blocked off is now trespassing On a US military base. That is an exceptionally serious crime that carries very serious prison time versus illegally crossing the border. A misdemeanor handled in civil court, usually resulting in deportation. So the administration had charged hundreds of people with illegally trespassing onto a military base that doesn't exist.

And late last week, a federal judge in New Mexico said, absolutely not. So the first 98 cases that the judge had, again, I think there were about 400, but the first 98, the judge said, you know what? I'm dismissing all of these federal charges of trespassing on a military base for several reasons. First and foremost, there's no military base, right, let's make that clear. You can't be trespassing on something when the something doesn't actually exist. Second of all, most of these people were arrested before you guys even put up signs saying that this is a military base, it's restricted, you can't come in. And third, even the ones who were arrested after signs went up, y'all put signs miles apart. So if they didn't happen to come through in an area where the sign was right there in a language, they may not speak, then, you know, they had no way of knowing and avoiding it. It's basically entrapment. And the judge was like, this isn't gonna stand. So these first 98 cases I have dismissed. Now these individuals have not had their misdemeanors dismissed. So they're still facing the misdemeanor charge of entering the country illegally. They're being held without bond. They're likely gonna be deported. But what this shows us is that these judges are starting to see through the tricks of this administration. You know, they think they're so clever who will make this a military base, even though it's just, you know, cactuses and scorpions, but it's a military base.

And the judge is like, no, you guys are dumb. Please don't do this anymore. You're wasting everybody's time. I shouldn't be hearing federal cases like this. These are misdemeanors for illegally crossing the border, and we'll handle it as such. We'll handle it in immigration court. Don't junk up my docket because you created a military base out of thin air.