Latest news with #SantaTeresa
Yahoo
15 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Federal prosecutors score first wins on NM border trespass cases
Jun. 19—The first two migrants convicted of trespassing into the so-called New Mexico National Defense Area this month should have known better. The two Mexican nationals had previously faced the same "novel" immigration-related trespassing charges just a month ago when they illegally crossed into the U.S. and were arrested by the U.S. Border Patrol in Doña Ana County. But like dozens of others caught in the Trump administration's new southern border enforcement crackdown, their misdemeanor trespassing charges didn't stick because of legal issues. So Eduardo Herrera-Juvencio and Andres De Los Santos-Martinez ended up being released from custody and deported back to Mexico, only to illegally cross into the same New Mexico military zone, west of the Santa Teresa port of entry, on June 1. This time, the defendants' prior prosecutions meant that they had been forewarned, making it more difficult to argue they didn't know they had stepped into the 60-foot-wide buffer zone, which was designated as a military property in mid-April. The U.S. Army assumed authority over a 170-mile-long buffer zone adjacent to the U.S.-Mexico border in New Mexico. A similar zone was created for a 63-mile-long strip in West Texas. Federal authorities charged the two men with reentry after deportation and the military trespass charges, which carry additional potential prison time of up to a year. On Thursday, the U.S. Attorney's Office in New Mexico announced the defendants had pleaded guilty to all three misdemeanors. "These first convictions reflect the resolve of the United States Attorney's Office to do its part in securing our nation's southern border," U.S. Attorney for New Mexico Ryan Ellison said in a statement. "I am tremendously proud of our staff in the Las Cruces branch office, the U.S. Border Patrol and the U.S. military for their relentless efforts to secure our southern border. New Mexico — and the entire country — is more secure because of these efforts." The men's federal public defenders couldn't be reached, and it wasn't clear from court records on Thursday when they will be sentenced. Over recent weeks, federal defense attorneys have argued that such prosecutions are flawed because of legal issues over whether migrants knew of the military restriction and whether federal prosecutors had probable cause to charge them. The rollout of the new federal enforcement strategy on the border has also faced pushback from several U.S. magistrate judges, who have found the military trespass charges defective. That includes Chief U.S. Magistrate Judge Gregory Wormuth of Las Cruces, who in mid-May began to dismiss such charges in nearly 100 cases where defendants had also been charged with illegal entry, typically a first-time offense. Both De Los Santos-Martinez and Herrera-Juvencio had their military trespass charges dismissed at that time. In El Paso, in the first trial in such a case, a federal court jury on June 5 acquitted a Peruvian woman of the military trespass charges. But this week, an El Paso federal district court judge found an Ecuadorian man guilty of the trespass charge along with illegal entry. Since facing scrutiny over whether migrants are adequately warned they are entering a military defense zone on the border, charging documents give greater detail about where the defendant was caught and note that 1,100 warning signs are posted every 100 to 200 meters in the zone in Spanish and English. In Herrera-Juvencio's case, he had already walked through the defense area before he was captured 1,423 yards north of the international border, court records show. By that time, he was more than three-fourths of a mile from a posted sign, the records show. His criminal complaint states that after his first arrest on May 7, the U.S. Border Patrol provided him with a written notice in Spanish that any unauthorized entry into the restricted military area was prohibited and subject to federal prosecution. De Los Santos-Martinez also received the same notice after his first arrest, records state. Both men also pleaded guilty to re-entry after deportation.
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
FAA Issues Warning With 'Clear Message' Before Drone Test
On Friday, June 13, the Federal Aviation Administration revealed it will conduct drone-detection testing near Santa Teresa, NM from June 16-27. According to a statement from the FAA, the administration's Center of Excellence for UAS Research, in coordination with U.S. Customs and Border Protection will conduct the testing at Doña Ana County International Jetport. State a local first responders will be on hand for the tests. This will be the third major drone-detection test planned by the FAA following the first two tests in Alaska and Cape May, NJ. The FAA selected the New Mexico location for its hot and arid climate, which the administration revealed supports its testing objectives. "The FAA will operate several large drones and about 100 commercial off-the-shelf drones during the two-week period. Testing will take place over the desert and near the old Rio Grande Speedway during the daytime on weekdays only," the FAA announced. Additional tests are scheduled in Mississippi and North Dakota later this year. The tests are run to help determine the effectiveness of the FAA's technologies and whether they might interfere with administration or aircraft navigation systems. Before the test runs in New Mexico later this month, the FAA issued a stern message to the public. "The public should not fly recreational drones near this area during the testing period," the administration said before offering a "clear message." "The FAA receives more than 100 drone-sighting reports near airports each month, and we want to send a clear message that operating drones around airplanes, helicopters, and airports is dangerous and illegal," it said. The FAA initially chartered the UAS Detection and Mitigation Systems Aviation Rulemaking Committee on March 16, 2023, to advise the agency on safely integrating drone detection and mitigation systems. After the ARC made 46 recommendations on ensuring systems do not interfere with the safe and efficient operation of the National Airspace System the FAA announced it incorporated many of the recommendations into the administrations work to ensure Issues Warning With 'Clear Message' Before Drone Test first appeared on Men's Journal on Jun 14, 2025
Reuters
13-06-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
Soldiers, Strykers and 100-degree temps: Inside Trump's border military zone
SANTA TERESA, NM June 13 (Reuters) - The weapons system atop a drab green U.S. Army Stryker swivels, its camera shifting downward toward a white Ford F-150 driving slowly along the U.S.-Mexico border. Under the watchful eye of the 26-ton armored vehicle perched on a sand dune above them, humanitarian volunteers are driving the dirt road next to the border wall to see if they can continue to search for migrant remains inside one of two military zones established along the border by the Trump administration in April and May. Soon, they get their answer. It's not long before an unmarked gray pickup appears, makes a U-turn in the sand, and puts on its siren, here in the desert 5.6 miles (9 km) west of the Santa Teresa, New Mexico border crossing. The driver pulls alongside, introduces himself as a U.S. Border Patrol agent, and tells the volunteers they can no longer be there. James Holman, founder of the Battalion Search and Rescue group, whose volunteers also hand water to migrants through the bars of the barrier, acquiesces. Then he vents his frustration. "We're ramping up all this military and taking this public land away, it doesn't make sense, and it's theater, it's deadly, deadly theater," says Holman, 59, a former Marine. They are in one of two so-called "National Defense Areas" set up along 260 miles (418 km) of the U.S. southern border in New Mexico and Texas as part of the Trump administration's military buildup on the border. U.S. President Donald Trump has long shown interest in using the military for civilian law enforcement, sending Marines to Los Angeles this week in their first domestic deployment in over 30 years. The border military zones are one of his most audacious attempts yet to use troops trained for overseas combat in roles normally carried out by Border Patrol or local police. The Army has not made public the zones' boundaries. The New Mexico area may run over three miles into the United States, in places, based on 'restricted area' warning signs in English and Spanish posted along State Road 9 parallel to the border. The zones are classified as U.S. Army installations, giving troops the right to temporarily detain and question migrants and other civilian trespassers caught in the areas. Their primary mission is to detect and track illegal border crossers as part of the Trump administration's quest for '100% operational control' of the border at a time when migrant arrests are near an historic low. Along the international boundary, Reuters saw warning signs posted inside the United States around 45 feet north of the border barrier around every 100 meters, facing south. That meant if you had crossed the border and could read them, you were already in the zone. Migrants caught illegally crossing the border into the zones face new trespassing charges on top of unlawful entry to the country, with combined penalties of up to 10 years imprisonment. Attempts to prosecute them for trespassing have floundered. Starting in May, federal judges in Texas and New Mexico have dismissed trespassing charges against migrants caught within the area and acquitted a Peruvian woman brought to trial, ruling there was no evidence they saw signs before entering the zone. Illegal border crossings fell to a record low in March after the Biden administration shut down asylum claims in 2024 and Mexico tightened immigration controls. Trump, who banned people from claiming asylum on the southern border shortly after starting his second term in January, nonetheless says the military areas are needed to repel an "invasion" of human traffickers and drug smugglers. In the past four months Trump raised the number of active-duty troops on the border to 8,000 from 2,500 at the end of the Biden administration, according to the U.S. Army. Presidents since Richard Nixon have used regular troops and reservists for support roles on the border. Trump has taken it a step further. The Bureau of Land Management in April transferred 110,000 acres (172 square miles) of land in New Mexico, an area seven times the size of Manhattan, to the U.S. Army for three years to establish a first zone. A second was created in May with a transfer of International Boundary and Water Commission land in Texas. The areas are satellites of the Fort Huachuca and Fort Bliss Army bases in Arizona and Texas, respectively. That gives troops the right to hold and question civilian trespassers without the need for Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act. The law lets a president deploy federal forces domestically during events like civil unrest. Some 105 Stryker combat vehicles and around 2,400 troops from the 4th Infantry Division deployed from Colorado Springs in March. They rove in armored personnel carriers across New Mexico, Texas and Arizona. Reuters saw Strykers concentrated in a roughly 20-mile ribbon from El Paso west to Santa Teresa, one of the 2,000-mile border's busiest and most deadly areas for migrant crossings. The 8-wheeled vehicles, used by Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan, and now by Ukraine in its war with Russia, can be seen parked under a bridge to Mexico, atop a landfill and on a ridge above a gap in the border wall. Their engines run 24/7 to cool crews in the 100 F. (38 C.) plus heat. Vehicles are unarmed but soldiers have personal weapons. Crews take shifts operating the joystick-controlled camera systems that can see for two miles (3.2 km) and have night vision, according to the Army. A person familiar with Strykers, who asked not to be named, said the work was 'monotonous' but said it gave soldiers 'a sense of purpose.' Troops have alerted Border Patrol to 390 illegal crossings in the nearly two months since the first zone was established. They made their first detentions on June 3, holding 3 'illegal aliens' in New Mexico before handing them over to Border Patrol, according to Army spokesperson Geoffrey Carmichael. Border Patrol arrested 39,677 migrants in the El Paso sector in the fiscal year to April, down 78% from the year-earlier period. Sitting outside his juice bar in Sunland Park, Harold Gregory says he has seen a sharp drop in migrants entering his store or asking customers for a ride since Strykers arrived. "We feel safer," said Gregory, 38. "They do kind of like intimidate so there's not so many people come this way." In neighboring Santa Teresa, trade consultant Jerry Pacheco says the optics of combat vehicles are not good as he tries to draw international firms to the town's industrial park. 'It's like killing an ant with a sledgehammer,' says Pacheco, executive director of the International Business Accelerator, a nonprofit trade counseling program. 'I think having the military down here is more of a political splash.' About 90 miles (143 km) west, New Mexico rancher Russell Johnson said he saw five Strykers briefly positioned in a gap in the border barrier on his ranch. He welcomes the zone as an extra layer of security and has testified to the U.S. Congress on illegal border crossers destroying barbed wire fences, cattle thieves driving livestock into Mexico and a pickup stolen at gunpoint by drug smugglers. He is unsure if his home, or over half his ranch, is inside the area but has been assured by U.S. Border Patrol he can continue to work land ranched by his family since 1918. 'I don't know, I don't think anyone knows,' says Johnson, 37, a former Border Patrol agent, of the zone's boundaries. He says the Army has not communicated rules for hunters with permits to shoot quail and mule deer this fall in the military area, or hikers who start or end the 3,000-mile (4,800 km) Continental Divide Trail within it. The Army has been seeking memoranda of understanding with local communities and agencies to continue activities in the New Mexico zone, said Nicole Wieman, a U.S. Army spokesperson. "The MOU process for commercial and recreational activities, such as hunting, mining and ranching, is complex," Wieman said. Jenifer Jones, Republican state representative for Johnson's area, said Americans can keep doing what they did before in the zone. 'They can carry their firearms as they would have prior,' said Jones, who welcomed the troops to her 'neglected' area where only a barbed-wire fence separates the two countries in places. To the east in Las Cruces, the state's second largest city, State Representative Sarah Silva, a Democrat, said the zones have created fear and apprehension 'I see this as an occupation of the U.S. Army on our lands,' said Silva. Back in desert west of Santa Teresa, Battalion Search and Rescue leader Abbey Carpenter, 67, stands among dunes where the group has discovered the remains of 24 migrants in 18 months, mostly women. She is concerned the area could be absorbed into the military zone. "Who's going to look for these remains if we're not allowed out here," she said, showing the jaw and other uncollected bones of a woman her group reported to local authorities in September. "Will they just be covered up by the desert sands?"
The Sun
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Sun
Loved-up Louis Tomlinson and Zara McDermott can't stop snogging on holiday in Costa Rica
LOUIS Tomlinson and Zara McDermott were unable to stop snogging during a romantic date night while holidaying in Costa Rica. The smitten couple packed on the PDA as they dined at the Banana Beach Restaurant on Sunday. The Sun revealed that One Direction star Louis, 33, flew the Strictly star, 28, out in first class to a secluded villa on the coast in Santa Teresa where he's recording new music. Zara, who split from former Made In Chelsea star Sam Thompson in January, was seen locking lips with her new pop star beau. The ex-Love Islander was seen beaming as she and Louis were spotted deep in conversation while gazing into each others eyes. Zara was pictured with her arms wrapped around Louis, as he lean in close for a kiss. They struggled to keep their hands off each other and were seen repeatedly embracing and smooching. Zara showed off her toned arms and midriff in a sleeveless white crop top and matching skirt. She opted for minimal makeup and wore her brunette tresses in a high ponytail, while accessorising with statement gold flower earrings. While the Best Song Ever hitmaker looked casual in a yellow t-shirt. They looked comfortable in each other's company and were seen laughing and joking around in between their PDA sessions. Sam Thompson drops HUGE clue he's set for awkward run in with Louis Tomlinson At one point Louis was seen whispering in Zara's ear, which left her giggling like a school girl. Throughout the evening, they were seen enjoying cosy conversations as they struggled to take their eyes off each other. Zara was then seen scrolling through her camera roll with Louis. She was seen grinning from ear to ear as she put her arm around the hitmaker as they made the most of their romantic getaway. It comes after fans bumped into the singer while the couple were out and about. As they asked to get selfies with Louis, Zara patiently waited by his side. He was then seen putting his hand on her back as he guided her out of the venue with him. The fan account which posted the video captioned it: "They're cute." In the video Louis is heard saying "I've been loving it, I've been loving" when asked about the area. Louis will be back in the UK for Soccer Aid net month and taking to the pitch at Old Trafford for the annual charity match alongside Zara's very recent ex boyfriend Sam Thompson. Sam split from Zara four months ago, and is now set to play on the same side as her new boyfriend in next month's charity match. She has no plans to support Louis from the sidelines, but was keen to spend quality time together abroad while he works on his new album. A source said: 'Louis and Zara are going from strength to strength. 'He got his team to organise her first-class travel from London to Costa Rica over the weekend. 'It meant Zara was unable to attend the TV Baftas but she is keen to spend as much time with Louis as possible." 10 10 10 10 10 10
Condé Nast Traveler
22-05-2025
- Condé Nast Traveler
Chez George — Hotel Review
Why book? Set on a hilltop in the historic Santa Teresa neighborhood of Rio De Janeiro, Chez Georges is a striking example of Brazilian Brutalism, offering sweeping 360-degree views of Sugarloaf Mountain and Guanabara Bay. Just a 20-minute drive from the vibrant Copacabana Beach, its secluded setting feels like an urban retreat, where time slows down and the morning begins with the gentle sound of birds. Whether lounging by the 50-foot pool, listening to soft Brazilian music from the record player, or watching the sunset, Chez Georges offers a tranquil, almost dreamlike escape. Set the scene It was early morning when I stepped out of my Uber and found myself in front of a large wooden door that resembled a garage. A keypad was mounted beside it, and a voice crackled through the speaker, asked for my name, and then buzzed me in. I walked into what appeared to be a garage, where a glass-clad elevator waited. Pressing the button for the top floor, the elevator climbed two stories, where the view gradually opened up around me. The boutique hotel itself was airy and minimalist. What struck me were the small, artistic details—artwork tucked into bookcases alongside records, candlesticks, Portuguese books, and musical instruments. Colored glass light fixtures hung from the ceiling in the lobby, casting soft reflections. Outside, a wooden deck stretched out with lounge chairs positioned toward the pool and the hotel. The open doors let in the gentle sounds of birds, and the peaceful atmosphere made the entire place feel like home. The staff seemed young, and upon arrival, I was the only one there. The backstory Wladimir Alves de Souza, a prominent Brazilian architect known for his contributions to Brazilian Brutalism and Modernism, designed the original residence in 1974. The property was constructed as a private home in Rio de Janeiro's historic Santa Teresa neighborhood. Decades later, in 2019, the property was transformed into a boutique hotel by Pierre Bident Moldeva, a technology entrepreneur, and Olivier Verwilghen, a musician. Despite having no prior experience in hospitality, the two were drawn to the idea of creating the kind of space that reflected their personal aesthetics. One of the distinctive features of Chez Georges is its integration of music into the architectural design. The villa includes a recording studio connected to a music production room located beneath the villa's private pool. The interior design features a mix of Brazilian and European modernism, with furnishings sourced from antique markets in Paris, Brussels, and Ghent, alongside pieces by Brazilian designer Ricardo Fasanello, like the dining room chairs. The rooms While Chez Georges may be modest in size, with only a handful of suites, the rooms themselves feel anything but small. Each suite is designed with 70s-inspired minimalism. Inside, you'll find a standard wardrobe, desk, and queen-size bed, but it's the floor-to-ceiling windows that steal the show, opening onto a shared balcony with sweeping views that's perfect to watch the sunrise. The design blends grey concrete ceilings, muted earth tones, and richly textured hardwoods to create a calm, grounded atmosphere. The bathroom, featuring a wooden sink and blue and white mosaic walls, also offers a view—this time of Santa Teresa and the concrete pergola outside. Each suite is named after a legendary musician named George, from Harrison to Benson, and notably, there are no televisions, encouraging guests to truly unplug. Food and drink There's no dinner service, but the hotel more than makes up for it with a generous array of breakfast options: Mornings begin with Pão de queijo, a colorful plate of fresh fruits like dragonfruit, kiwi, mango, and grapes, along with a selection of cold plates, cakes, toast, eggs, and freshly pressed fruit juices. The neighborhood/area The hotel opens directly onto the Santa Teresa Tram, also known as the Bondinho—a historic tramway that's been in operation since 1877. As one of the world's oldest street railways, it offers a scenic and nostalgic ride over Arcos da Lapa and into downtown Rio, making it a charming and accessible way to explore the city. Just steps from the tram, the street is lined with lively restaurants, bars, clothing boutiques, and souvenir shops. A five-minute walk away, you'll find Indecente Café, a vibrant new coffee shop that offers a cozy atmosphere and a menu of paninis and lattes. While Santa Teresa quiets down in the evening, late-night options are still available, like Ago, a laid-back Afro-Brazilian bar about a ten-minute walk from the hotel, serving fried shrimp pastries and smoked cinnamon cocktails in a welcoming space. The service Truly the highlight of my stay. Though the atmosphere was laid-back, the staff were exceptionally warm and attentive, always ready with suggestions on things to do and the best ways to get around. Upon arrival, I was greeted with a welcome drink and a sense that nothing was too much to ask. They addressed me by name and took time during breakfast to chat about my travels and my experience in Brazil. One staff member shared how much they loved working there because it allowed them to live in their beautiful country while meeting people from all over the world. One evening, when I mentioned I was a bit hungry, someone kindly opened the kitchen and brought me a freshly sliced mango to enjoy in my room. There was always someone willing to help, and they were dedicated to giving me a good experience. Accessibility There's an elevator to get up to the main property and accessible suites on the ground floor.
