The magistrate ruled that apprehended migrants may not have been aware they were crossing into a military zone.

A United States judge in the southwestern state of New Mexico has dismissed trespassing charges against dozens of migrants apprehended in a military zone recently created under President Donald Trump.

The military zone is one of two so far that the Trump administration has created along the US-Mexico border, in order to deter undocumented migration into the country.

Entering a military zone can result in heightened criminal penalties. As many as 400 cases have since been filed in Las Cruces, New Mexico, alleging security violations and crimes like trespassing on restricted military property.

But starting late on Wednesday and continuing into Thursday, Chief US Magistrate Judge Gregory Wormuth began issuing dismissals at the request of the federal public defender’s office in Las Cruces.

Wormuth ruled that the government had failed to demonstrate that the migrants knew they were entering a military zone.

“The criminal complaint fails to establish probable cause to believe the defendant knew he/she was entering” the military zone, Wormuth wrote in his orders dismissing charges.

The ruling is the latest legal setback for the Trump administration, as it seeks to impose stricter restrictions and penalties for undocumented immigration. But the president’s broad use of executive power has drawn the ire of civil liberties groups, who argue that Trump is trampling constitutional safeguards.

Establishing new military zones has been part of Trump’s strategy to reduce the flow of migration into the US.

Normally, the crime of “improper entry by an alien” carries fines or a prison sentence of up to six months. But trespassing on a military zone comes with steeper penalties than a typical border crossing, and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has warned of a possible combined sentence of up to 10 years.

“You can be detained. You will be detained,” Hegseth warned migrants. “You will be interdicted by US troops and border patrol working together.”

On April 18, the first military zone was unveiled, called the  “New Mexico National Defence Area”. It covered a stretch of about 274 kilometres — or 180 miles — along the border with Mexico, extending into land formerly held by the Department of the Interior.

Hegseth has said he would like to see more military zones set up along the border, and in early May, a second one was announced near El Paso, Texas. That strip was approximately 101km or 63 miles.

“Let me be clear: if you cross into the National Defense Area, you will be charged to the FULLEST extent of the law,” Hegseth wrote in a social media post.

Hegseth has previously stated that the military will continue to expand such zones until they have achieved “100 percent operational control” of the border.

Trump and his allies have frequently compared undocumented immigration to an “invasion”, and they have used that justification to invoke wartime laws like the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.

In a court brief on behalf of the Trump administration, US Attorney Ryan Ellison argued that the new military zones were a vital bulwark for national security. He also rejected the idea that innocent people might be caught in those areas.

“The New Mexico National Defense Area is a crucial installation necessary to strengthen the authority of servicemembers to help secure our borders and safeguard the country,” Ellison said.

He noted that the government had put up “restricted area” signs along the border. But the public defender’s office in New Mexico argued that the government had not done enough to make it sufficiently clear to migrants in the area that they were entering a military zone.

In the US, the public defenders noted that trespassing requires that the migrants were aware of the restriction and acted “in defiance of that regulation for some nefarious or bad purpose”.

Despite this week’s dismissals, the migrants involved still face less severe charges of crossing the border illegally.

Scarlett Johansson remembered in an interview with Vanity Fair her career getting pigeonholed by “sex object” roles after the breakout success of Sofia Coppola’s 2003’s “Lost in Translation,” which cast a 17-year-old Johansson opposite Bill Murray.

“After ‘Lost in Translation,’ every role that I was offered for years was ‘the girlfriend,’ ‘the other woman,’ a sex object — I couldn’t get out of the cycle,” Johansson said. “It sort of felt like, ‘Oh, I guess this is my identity now as an actor.’ There wasn’t much I could do with that.”

Johansson added that her representatives at the time did not help her try to avoid these roles, although “they were reacting to the norm. The industry worked like that forever.”

“You come into your sexuality and your desirability as part of your growth, and it’s exciting to blossom into yourself,” she continued. “You’re wearing the clothes you want, you’re expressing yourself, then you suddenly turn around and you’re like, ‘Wait, I feel like I’m being’ — I don’t want to say exploited because it’s such a severe word. That term is so heavy, but yeah, it was a kind of an exploitation.”

“Lost in Translation” stars Murray as a fading movie star in Tokyo who befriends Johansson’s college graduate amid a midlife crisis. Johansson would not go into specifics but did say “Bill was in a hard place” during the film’s production, adding: “Everybody was on tenterhooks around him, including our director and the full crew, because he was dealing with his… stuff.”

Johansson said she never had worked with an actor in Murray’s “headspace” before. The two performers ran into each other earlier this year behind the scenes of “SNL50,” where Murray was in a much more spirited mood.

“He’s such a different person now. I think life has humbled him,” Johansson said, confirming she was partly referring to his behavior on the set of the 2022 movie “Being Mortal” that resulted in the project being shut down. Murray said earlier this year that he gave a woman on set a kiss through a mask, although he maintained he was just being silly.

“Certainly, yes — that was really bad,” Johansson said. “But I also know COVID was a hard thing for him. Life — all these things have led up to him being held accountable for that kind of behavior. But you know what? How wonderful that people can change.”

Speaking of her experience on “Lost in Translation” at large, Johansson added: “I’m pretty proud of how I handled myself. I really just did the work, you know? It’s a good tactic for pushing through stuff. Eyes on the prize.”

Head over to Vanity Fair’s website to read Johansson’s cover story in its entirety.

President Donald Trump on Thursday will soon land in the United Arab Emirates for his final stop in the Middle East this week in a visit that marked the first time a U.S. president has traveled to the nation in nearly 30 years, following President George W. Bush’s trip in 2008.

Trump, who has secured major business deals first in Saudi Arabia and then Qatar, is expected to announce more agreements with what has long been one of the U.S.’ chief trading partners in the region — though given recently announced trillion-dollar deals, it is unclear what more the Emiratis will agree to. 

In March, the UAE pledged a $1.4 trillion investment in the U.S. economy over the next decade through AI infrastructure, semiconductor, energy and American manufacturing initiatives, including a plan to nearly double U.S. aluminum production by investing in a new smelter for the first time in 35 years. 

TRUMP SIGNS AGREEMENTS WITH QATAR ON DEFENSE AND BOEING PURCHASES

On the eve of the president’s visit to the Middle Eastern nation, the State Department also announced a $1.4 billion sale of CH-47 F Chinook helicopters and F-16 fighter jet parts to Abu Dhabi.

However, lawmakers on Wednesday suggested they may block this sale amid concerns over direct personal business ties, as Trump’s crypto venture has also received a $2 billion investment by a UAE-backed investment firm.

“If I was a betting person, I’d bet that the Emiratis almost certainly kept some things in reserve for President Trump’s actual visit that can be announced when he’s on the ground in Abu Dhabi,” John Hannah, former national security advisor to Dick Cheney and current Randi & Charles Wax senior fellow at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA), told Fox News Digital. “I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we see some new items unveiled or some additional details put out on some of the earlier announcements.” 

“The UAE has clearly staked its future on being the Middle East leader in a wide range of 21st-century technologies, from AI to chips to space,” he added. “And of course, the shopping list for high-end weapons is almost limitless and always a possible deliverable for a trip like this.”  

Increased scrutiny arose around Trump’s Middle East tour as engagement with all three nations holds personal value to him, given the Trump Organization’s luxury resorts, hotels, golf courses, real estate projects and crypto investment schemes in the region.

An infographic titled “Trump’s high-stakes Gulf tour,” created in Ankara, Turkey, on Tuesday. (Yasin Demirci/Anadolu via Getty Images)

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But all three nations also hold significant value to Washington, as they have become key players in some of the toughest geopolitical issues facing the U.S. and its allies. 

Saudi Arabia and Qatar have been integral in facilitating U.S. negotiations when it comes to ending Russia’s war in Ukraine and hostage negotiations in the Gaza Strip.

While neither of these issues appeared to be top points of discussion in Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia or Qatar, he may hit on geopolitical ties more heavily when it comes to the UAE, particularly given that Abu Dhabi is one of the few Middle Eastern nations that holds normalized diplomatic ties with Israel.

The UAE has ardently opposed Israel’s military operations in the Gaza Strip, has called for a two-state solution, and has rejected Trump’s “riviera plans,” instead favoring an Egypt-reconstruction alternative.

President Donald Trump, center, attends a photo session with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, United Arab Emirates Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Kuwait’s Crown Prince Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and Gulf Cooperation Council Secretary-General Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi during the GCC Summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

But Abu Dhabi has also maintained relations with the U.S.’ biggest adversaries, including China, Russia and Iran, which could be a topic of conversation during Trump’s one-day visit.

“As everywhere on this trip, the headlines will likely be dominated by the dollar signs and deal-making,” Hannah said. “But I’m personally most interested in the geopolitical angle of trying to reset the U.S.-Emirati strategic partnership, especially in the context of America’s great power competition with China and to a lesser extent Russia, and regionally with Iran.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, left, appears with UAE National Security Advisor Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan at ADNEC Centre Abu Dhabi in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on Feb. 19.  (Reuters/Evelyn Hockstein/Pool)

Hannah explained that Trump’s visit to the UAE exemplifies a recommitment by the U.S. economically and militarily to support Abu Dhabi’s “stability, security, and success in a dangerous neighborhood” and could “pay real dividends going forward.”

 “The UAE’s top leadership has come to believe that putting most of its eggs into the American basket was an increasingly risky bet as one president after another decided that the Middle East was a lost cause — nothing but ‘blood and sand’ as President Trump famously said in his first term — and the country needed to pivot its focus toward Asia,” he continued. “With a country as influential and resource-rich as the UAE, correcting that unhelpful perception and putting the strategic relationship back on a much more positive dynamic is an important goal.”