A woman wounded in a shooting by a Border Patrol agent during an immigration stop in Portland, Oregon, pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court to illegally entering the United States and was sentenced to one year of probation, the Associated Press reported.
Yorlenys Zambrano-Contreras appeared by video from an immigration detention facility in Tacoma, Washington, for the hearing in Portland before U.S. Magistrate Judge Stacie Beckerman, AP reported, citing The Oregonian/OregonLive.
Under the negotiated resolution of the case, Zambrano-Contreras will remain out of custody in Oregon during her probation term, AP reported. The terms include location monitoring and certain nighttime curfew requirements, and she will not face time in prison, the news outlet reported.
AP reported that the case was initially filed in Texas, and Zambrano-Contreras waived her right to appear there for prosecution. On Thursday, Beckerman also ordered her not to be in areas where prostitution is occurring, AP reported, citing Oregonian/OregonLive.
The shooting at the center of the controversy occurred on Jan. 8, AP reported, when a Border Patrol agent wounded Zambrano-Contreras and Luis Nino-Moncada while they were in a pickup truck in a medical complex parking lot. The incident came amid heightened scrutiny of immigration enforcement after, a day earlier, a federal agent shot and killed a driver in Minneapolis, prompting protests over agents’ aggressive tactics during immigration operations.
In court filings, the FBI told the court it had found no surveillance or other video of the shooting, AP reported. The filings described the sequence leading to the agent opening fire: according to the court papers, Nino-Moncada put the truck in reverse and repeatedly slammed it into an unoccupied car that Border Patrol agents had rented, smashing its headlights and knocking off its front bumper.
The filings say the truck struck the agent and that he fired two rounds out of fear for his life, AP reported. Nino-Moncada has been indicted on charges of aggravated assault on a federal employee and damaging federal property, AP reported, and he pleaded not guilty and remains in custody, with a jury trial set for March.
The Department of Homeland Security said Zambrano-Contreras and Nino-Moncada entered the U.S. illegally in 2023 and 2022, respectively, and that they were affiliated with the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, AP reported. Portland Police Chief Bob Day told AP the pair had “some nexus” to the gang.
Day said police came to learn of the pair during an investigation of a July shooting believed to have been carried out by gang members, but he said they were not identified as suspects, AP reported. He also said Zambrano-Contreras was previously arrested for prostitution and that Nino-Moncada was present when a search warrant was served in that case, AP reported.