Pentagon sends attorneys to help prosecute immigration cases

LAS CRUCES — Three attorneys and two senior paralegal specialists from the Pentagon have been assigned to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Las Cruces to assist with the growing load of cases from the U.S.-Mexico border region involving immigration offenses and serious offenses involving narcotics, guns and human trafficking. 

Acting U.S. Attorney Ryan Ellison welcomed the additional support, which includes three special assistant U.S. attorneys, in an announcement Monday stating the assignment “strengthens the District of New Mexico’s partnership with the U.S. military and supports ongoing national efforts to deploy additional Department of War and Department of Justice personnel to the southern border.”

President Donald Trump directed in September that the Department of Defense be rebranded as the Department of War, although Congress has yet to authorize the name change.

Ellison’s office called the legal team’s support “an important step toward the administration’s stated objective of achieving 100% operational control of the southern border by increasing prosecutorial capacity in a key border district.” 

A spokesperson for the office told the Journal, “These individuals come to us from multiple branches of the U.S. military and will help handle the increased caseload, which included approximately 6,600 immigration prosecutions in 2025.” 

The growing load of cases is evident at federal court in Las Cruces, where dozens of people detained on offenses such as entering the U.S. without authorization or re-entering after previously being deported may appear at a time. 

Many are also charged with trespassing in military zones at the border, declared in 2025 after the Department of the Interior transferred over 109,651 acres of federal land along the U.S. border in New Mexico to the U.S. Army as part of the administration’s enhanced immigration enforcement. The trespassing charges are often dropped. 

U.S. magistrate judges in Las Cruces have been observed calling defendants facing similar charges in groups as large as 10 at a time for their initial court appearances while the U.S. Marshals Service carefully coordinates movements of men and women held at different detention facilities around southern New Mexico.

Algernon D'Ammassa is the Journal's southern New Mexico correspondent. He can be reached at adammassa@abqjournal.com.