First Illegal Immigrant Tried for Entering Military Border Zone Found Not Guilty

The jury also convicted the 21-year-old Peruvian national of entering the country illegally. She now faces deportation.

Army soldiers look at the border wall next to a surveillance vehicle in Sunland Park, N.M., Feb. 3, 2025. Andres Leighton/AP Photo

The first illegal immigrant tried for entering the newly created military zone along the southern U.S. border was found not guilty on June 5.

Peruvian national Adely Vanessa De La Cruz-Alvarez, 21, was arrested in May in West Texas after entering the United States from Mexico by walking across the Rio Grande riverbed, according to court documents. While she was convicted by a jury of entering the country illegally and faces deportation, she also faced a second charge of entering restricted military property, a petty misdemeanor, of which the jury found her not guilty.