Pentagon’s Border Zone Snags First 28 Migrants for Justice Dept. Prosecution Christian Torres/Anadolu via Getty Images

The Department of Justice (DOJ) charged more than 20 migrants for illegally entering the United States through land that is now controlled by the U.S. military.

Prosecutors were reported to have hit “at least 28 migrants” with an additional charge of “violating security regulations in U.S. District Court in Las Cruces,” along with the “more common misdemeanor of entering” the U.S. illegally, the Washington Post reported.

Per the outlet, while “both crimes are classified as misdemeanors,” the additional charge “increases the possible penalties to up to a year in custody and $100,000 in fines”:

Both crimes are classified as misdemeanors. But the new charge increases the possible penalties to up to a year in custody and $100,000 in fines, whereas the traditional illegal-entry charge carries only a maximum six-month jail term and up to $5,000 in fines.

This comes after President Donald Trump had ordered the U.S. Armed Forces to take control of public land along the U.S.-Mexico border in an effort to protect the border from migrants attempting to enter the nation unlawfully. The U.S. military was ordered to “ensure the safety and security of the military and other Federal personnel in areas of military operations within Federal lands along the southern border”:

President Trump ordered military troops specifically to “ensure the safety and security of the military and other Federal personnel in areas of military operations within Federal lands along the southern border, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary of Agriculture, and the Secretary of Homeland.”

Several Trump administration officials such as Border Czar Tom Homan and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem have, over the course of the first 100 days, encouraged illegal aliens in the U.S. to self-deport or risk deportation the hard way. Homan has warned that officials or judges who are knowingly harboring illegal aliens, “will be prosecuted.”

Breitbart News’s Hannah Knudsen reported a CNBC survey found that Trump was seeing a +7 net approval regarding his policy on illegal immigration and deportation illegal aliens from the U.S.

DHS officials revealed that in the first 100 days of the Trump administration, almost 300 Tren de Aragua (TdA) and MS-13 gang members, had been deported. DHS has also arrested more than 150,000 illegal aliens since Trump was inaugurated, out of this number, “75 percent” have “criminal convictions or pending criminal charges.”

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