{"id":523515,"date":"2026-01-17T20:08:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T20:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/523515\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T20:08:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T20:08:12","slug":"woman-shot-by-border-patrol-agent-in-portland-appears-in-court-by-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/523515\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman shot by Border Patrol agent in Portland appears in court by video"},"content":{"rendered":"

The woman shot in the chest by a Border Patrol agent<\/a> in Portland last week appeared in federal court by video Friday from the immigration detention center in Tacoma on a complaint alleging she illegally entered the United States in 2023. <\/p>\n

Yorlenys Betzabeth Zambrano-Contreras, 32, had been moved last Saturday to the Northwest Immigration and Customs Enforcement Processing Center from Legacy Emanuel Medical Center in Portland, where she underwent surgery.<\/p>\n

A video monitor in the downtown Portland courtroom showed her sitting alone in a nondescript room dressed in pink scrubs, staring straight ahead, <\/b>her arms crossed in front of her chest. She listened to a Spanish-speaking interpreter who connected with her on his cellphone.<\/p>\n

Her lawyer Conor Huseby had asked for Zambrano-Contreras to appear by video \u201cdue to her medical condition and the difficulty of transportation.\u201d<\/p>\n

He asked that she continued to be held at the immigration detention center for now. No immediate date was set for her next court appearance either in Portland or in Texas.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors in Texas filed the illegal entry allegation against Zambrano-Contreras after the shooting. Friday\u2019s hearing was an initial court appearance to inform Zambrano-Contreras of the allegation filed against her.<\/p>\n

U.S. Magistrate Judge Stacie F. Beckerman read the woman her rights. Other than greeting the judge and acknowledging she understood her rights, Zambrono-Contreras did not otherwise speak during the hearing.<\/p>\n

Zambrano-Contreras was a passenger in a Toyota Tacoma truck that six Border Patrol agents in four unmarked cars had followed into the parking lot of an Adventist Health medical office building in Southeast Portland about 2 p.m. on Jan. 8.<\/p>\n

One of the agents shot into the truck and wounded Zambrano-Contreras and the driver, Luis David Nino-Moncada<\/a>, 33. U.S. Homeland Security officials said the agent fired in self-defense when Nino-Moncada put his truck into reverse and struck an unoccupied federal rental car several times before driving off.<\/p>\n

The wounded pickup driver drove about three miles to The Bria Apartments off Northeast 146th Avenue and called 911 at 2:24 p.m. to report that he and his passenger had been shot. He and Zambrano-Contreras were taken to separate hospitals.<\/p>\n

Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Edmonds said the maximum penalty for illegal entry into the U.S. , a misdemeanor, is six months in prison and a $5,000 fine.<\/p>\n

At the close of her hearing, Zambrano-Contreras held the left side of her chest as she stood up from a chair, waiting to be let out of the room at the detention center.<\/p>\n

Homeland Security officials have said Zambrano-Contreras was the target of the Border Patrol stop, alleging she was involved in a prostitution ring associated with the violent Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang and involved in a prior Portland police shooting. She has not faced any new charges stemming from any prostitution ring or shooting.<\/p>\n

Nino-Moncada remains in custody, accused of assaulting a federal officer with his truck and damaging government property.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The woman shot in the chest by a Border Patrol agent in Portland last week appeared in federal…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":523516,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[50,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-523515","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"category-us","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115912252085506372","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=523515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/523516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}