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7 months ago
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El Paso's district attorney plans to move forward with criminal charges against more than 200 illegal immigrants who took part in a riot last month on the border-- with some migrant punching and stomping on members of the Texas National Guard.
District Attorney Bill Hicks blamed an El Paso Magistrate Judge Humberto Acosta for setting some of those same migrants free when they went before the court Sunday for a bond hearing.
'I informed the judge that because it was Easter Sunday...that our office would ask for a reset of those hearings on Easter Sunday to move them into the work week,' Hicks explained during a press conference Tuesday.
Despite text conversations between Hicks and Acosta agreeing to that, the judge accused the DA's office of not being ready for the bond hearings and released many of the migrants during the Easter hearing.
'We were prepared for the bond hearing. We had ran rap sheets on all of the 200+ individuals, we had the complaint affidavit and we were prepared,' the Republican DA added.
El Paso District Attorney Bill Hicks blamed a local judge for setting dozens of migrants free who had taken part in a border riot on March 21
El Paso Magistrate Judge Humberto Acosta made the decision to release the migrants, claiming the district attorney did not have individual cases for hundreds of migrants ready to go for the Sunday bond hearing
About 600 migrants who breached the barriers set up on the Rio Grande in El Paso,
A group of about 600 migrants who entered the US illegally rushed the border March 21 in El Paso, Texas
Despite the judge's order to set the migrants free, at least 39 will remain behind bars.
Public defenders who will be representing the migrants in court have stepped in and instead asked the courts to keep the migrants behind bars because their release from jail would mean their deportation from the US, the DA added.
It would also disqualify those migrants from being able to ask for legal status in the country anytime in the future.
Hicks says he plans to prosecute all the migrants charged, even if they have been released or deported, creating a warrant for the migrant if they ever come back into Texas.
'The national guardsmen were punched in the face, the knees of guardsmen were stomped on...some tried to take a gun away from one of the national guardsmen,' the DA revealed.
'We have a group of close to 1,000 that's left Chihuahua City that is making its way to El Paso with instructions to go to gate 36. I'm concerned that if we don't send that message that you can't come to Gate 36 or some other place in El Paso and perpetrate violence to get into the United States, that we can stop them.'
A migrant observes others who breached the concertina wire on the Rio Grande in El Paso, Texas on Thursday, March 21. The migrants were hoping to be processed by Border Patrol on asylum claims
PICTURED: Junior Evaristo-Benitez, 21, of Honduras, was taken into custody and charged with assault on a public servant, a 3rd degree felony, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety confirmed
Members of the Texas National Guard work with Border Patrol to coordinate migrants who crossed the border from Mexico and forced their way through concertina wire while they wait to be processed by border patrol as they are stopped on the U.S. side of the Rio Grande, in El Paso, Texas
As many as 1,000 migrants had gathered at the border wall on March 21, but only about 425 took part in charging authorities at Gate 36, a mile marker at the border wall.
Texas officials wanted to charge about 326 people but some migrants had already been deported by Border Patrol, Hicks stated, and others were being held by the feds in Houston since detention center in West Texas were at capacity.
About 222 were ultimately charged. From those, nine migrants were singled out as the main instigators and those who assaulted the guard members.
Those nine are facing felony charges.
From that group, two of the migrants were released by US Border Patrol, as the Texas Department of Public Safety continues to search for them.
Junior Evaristo-Benitez, 21, of Honduras, was taken into custody and charged with assault on a public servant, a 3rd degree felony, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety confirmed.
Texas officials continue to reinforce the border since the March 21 riot
Texas National Guard soldiers install border fencing layered with concertina wire near the Rio Grande river Tuesday
A caravan of about 2,000 migrants is making its way to border, with many migrant headed to El Paso
He remains in jail after his bond was denied, court records show.
The other seven have already gone before a grand jury and have been indicted.
Additionally, some are facing federal charges as well.
Meanwhile Gov. Greg Abbott has continued to reinforce the area around Gate 36.
Since the riot, national guard members have been added additional barriers, including razor wire and anti-climb fencing.
A caravan of some 2,000 migrants is headed to the border, with some just days away from Texas' sixth largest city.
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