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8 months ago
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Authorities in Texas have arrested 70 migrants who broke through a line of National Guard troops on March 21 with the intent to storm past the El Paso border.
The 70 who were arrested were part of a group of 600 illegal crossers present that day, who were seen climbing over a triple layer of razor wire and then confronting the National Guard at the other side.
In a video of the riot captured by the New York Post, the group of migrants initially appear to put their hands in the air. The scene quickly turned violent when a few of them squeak through the several National Guard members that were closing the gap between a broken fence.
'There were probably only about a dozen ring leaders and then rest (of the migrants) just followed along,' one law enforcement source who chose to stay anonymous explained to the DailyMail.com.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has locked up more than 200 migrants whom Texas wants to arrest and charge related to this incident, an agency official told the New York Post. That same official reportedly said that federal authorities 'are not being as cooperative as Border Patrol.'
A group of about 600 migrants who entered the US illegally rushed the border Thursday in El Paso, Texas
A migrant observes others who breached the concertina wire on the Rio Grande in El Paso, Texas on Thursday, March 21, 2024. The migrants were hoping to be processed by Border Patrol
About 600 migrants who breached the barriers set up on the Rio Grande in El Paso, Texas
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
The 70 migrants who were detained by Texas authorities are facing misdemeanor rioting charges.
On Wednesday, Texas also charged the nine migrants who allegedly assaulted the National Guard troops. Some of these actions were contained in the video.
The incident occurred at Gate 36, where the roughly a portion of the roughly 600 migrants tore down barriers that had been built by state authorities. They then charged at the National Guard soldiers, hoping Border Patrol agents would process them into the US if they got far enough.
Many of these asylum seeking migrants had chosen not to turn surrender themselves immediately as this is a well-known place to give up to US Border Patrol agents, because they were caught in limbo due a Texas law SB4.
The controversial law gives state and local police in the Lone Star State permission to arrest illegal immigrants, a right that has only been reserved for federal officers like US Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Migrants breach infrastructure set up by the Texas National Guard on the Rio Grande in El Paso, Texas on Thursday
A migrant shows an injury he alleged that he suffered after a Texas National Guard forced him back south of the barrier set up by the Texas National Guard on the Rio Grande in El Paso, Texas
Migrant families who were part of the 600-person mob wait to be processed by US Border Patrol
The law, which has been banned several times in recent days by federal courts, was then allowed to take effect for a few hours Tuesday, before it blocked again Tuesday night.
The legal whiplash left many migrants unsure would would happen to them if they turned themselves over to Border Patrol.
The crowds were camping out in the no-mans land between north of the river that separates the US and Mexico, the Rio Grande.
The river is the international boundary, not the border wall.
By Thursday morning, the migrants climbed over the wire fence in coordination and made a run for the border wall to presumably turn themselves in by force.
A National Guard source told the New York Post that they confiscated knives and shanks from some involved in the riot. And since the riot, Texas has reportedly dispatched more National Guard members and Department of Public Safety troopers to El Paso, while also replenishing some of the border wire that was damaged by the illegal crossers.
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