World
US judge dismisses case against migrants caught in new military zone
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.
World
Amy Poehler Says ‘SNL’ Actors ‘All Played People We Should Not Have… I Misappropriated, I Appropriated’: Everything in Comedy Has an ‘Expiration Date’
Amy Poehler recently took accountability for her problematic “Saturday Night Live” characters while talking to former cast member Will Forte on her “Good Hang” podcast. Poehler said that every comedian who has appeared on “SNL” over the years has “played people that we should not have played” and “the part about getting older and being in comedy is you have to, like, figure out, ‘Oh, it’s like everything has an expiration date.’”
“There was even on [‘SNL50’], when they had that segment which was like, ‘Here’s all the ways we got things wrong,’ and they showed way inappropriate casting for people,” Poehler added. “We all played people that we should not have played. I misappropriated, I appropriated…I didn’t know.”
Poehler was referring to the “SNL50” sketch in which Tom Hanks introduced an In Memoriam segment calling out the many problematic jokes and sketches “SNL” has aired. The montage of poorly-aged bits includes jokes about sexual harassment and such infamous moments as Adrien Brody sporting dreadlocks and a Jamaican accent.
“Even though these characters, accents and … let’s just call them ‘ethnic’ wigs were unquestionably in poor taste, you all laughed at them,” Tom Hanks said in a winking moment at the audience. “So if anyone should be canceled, shouldn’t it be you, the audience? Something to think about.”
Speaking to Forte on her podcast, Poehler added: “The best thing you can do is make repairs, learn from your mistakes, do better. It’s all you can do.”
Watch Poehler and Forte’s full “Good Hang” conversation in the video below.
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If President Trump decides not to order a strike on Iran’s main underground enrichment site at Fordow, Israel has a number of options to destroy Iran’s nuclear enrichment facility buried deep under a mountain south of Tehran.
One option includes sending elite Israeli Air Force commandos from Unit 5101, known as Shaldag, which, in Hebrew, means kingfisher, a bird known to be patient and dive deep under water to find its prey.
In September, members of this elite unit surprised the world by entering an underground missile factory used by Iran in Syria.
“There was a site that similarly looked like Fordow,” former Israeli Military Intelligence Chief Amos Yadlin told Fox News in an exclusive interview. “Even though smaller, the Syrian facility produced advanced ballistic missiles, precise ballistic missiles using Iranian technology, as well as Iranian money.”
AMERICA’S IRAN DILEMMA: HOW TO STRIKE FORDOW WITHOUT LOSING SIGHT OF CHINA THREAT
“There was a site that similarly looked like Fordow,” former Israeli Military Intelligence Chief Amos Yadlin told Fox News in an exclusive interview. (Amos Yadlin)
Israel attacked the site from the air a few times but was not able to destroy the site.
Unit 5101 (Shaldag) used the cover of darkness and diversionary airstrikes to enter the secret site, plant explosives and destroy the complex. Like Iran’s Fordow mountain complex south of Tehran, it was 300 feet underground.
HOW BUNKER BUSTER BOMBS WORK AND HOW THEY COULD DESTROY IRAN’S FORDOW NUCLEAR SITE
“The Air Force took care of all the guards around the perimeter, and Shaldag got in, and the place is gone, destroyed,” Yadlin said with a slight smile.
It’s not the first time Israel has had to plan to take out a secret nuclear complex against the odds and alone. In 1981, Israel flew a daring mission to bomb Iraq’s nuclear reactor at Osirak.
Yadlin was one of eight young Israeli F-16 pilots who carried out the secret attack.
In 1981, Israel flew a daring mission to bomb Iraq’s nuclear reactor at Osirak. Yadlin was one of eight young Israeli F-16 pilots who carried out the secret attack. (Amos Yadlin)
“We didn’t have air refueling at that time. We didn’t have GPS. It was dumb bombs, smart pilot, but a very difficult operational mission when Iraq was in a war (with Iran). So, the state of alert was very, very high,” Yadlin recalled. He and the other pilots believed it might be a suicide mission, and they might not have enough fuel to return home.
More recently, retired Maj. Gen. Yadlin served as the head of Israel’s Military Intelligence in 2007, when Israel blew up a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor that the world did not know about. The White House at the time did not want to assist in the strike. Yadlin has seen history change after Israel has acted alone carrying out daring missions like the exploding pagers that killed most of the top commanders of Iran’s proxy in Lebanon, Hezbollah.
WHY US MUST DESTROY IRAN’S FORDOW NUCLEAR FACILITY NOW
In 2008, when it was determined that Israeli F-16s could not reach Iran’s nuclear sites, Yadlin ordered Mossad to come up with another way to take out Iran’s uranium enrichment at Natanz. Two years later, Israeli and American cyber warriors introduced Stuxnet, a malicious computer worm that caused thousands of Natanz centrifuges to spin out of control, setting back Iran’s nuclear enrichment.
More recently, retired Maj. Gen. Yadlin served as the head of Israel’s Military Intelligence in 2007, when Israel blew up a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor that the world did not know about. (Amos Yadlin)
The decision to strike Fordow, the crown jewel and heart of Iran’s nuclear program, is different, and Israel prefers the U.S. to use its B-2 stealth bombers and 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs.
“Anybody who wants the war to be over soon, to be finished quickly, have to find a way to deal with Fordow,” Yadlin said. “Those who think that attacking Fordow will escalate the war, in my judgment, it can de-escalate and terminate the war.”
And it could serve as a deterrent to China and Russia, who will see the power and capability of the U.S. military’s unique capability.
Another option would be to cut power to Fordow. Without power, the centrifuges enriching the uranium could become permanently disabled.
When asked if Israel could take out Fordow without American B-2 bombers, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Fox’s Bret Baier in an exclusive interview last Sunday, “We have quite a few startups too and quite a few rabbits up our sleeve. And I don’t think that I should get into that.”
How did MAGA become Trump’s biggest opponent of a US strike on Iran? The Republican base is split over Trump’s rhetoric about getting involved in another foreign war. Conservative stalwarts like Tucker Carlson and Steve Bannon are pushing back. Could a US strike on Iran be a blow against Trump at home?
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