A 21-year-old illegal immigrant has been charged with assaulting a member of the Texas National Guard in the El Paso stampede last week that federal authorities believe was orchestrated by a handful of “ringleaders.”
Junior Evaristo-Benitez, 21, of Honduras, was arrested and charged with assault on a public servant, a third-degree felony, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Public Safety confirmed.
He is now being held in the El Paso County Jail.
Six hundred migrants, mostly single adult men from Venezuela, stormed authorities Thursday morning, breaking through barbed wire barriers and overpowering guards who were trying to stop the migrants from surrendering to the U.S. Border Patrol near the border wall.
Federal authorities are seeking criminal charges for about a dozen illegal immigrants who led a wild and chaotic riot, as identified on police cameras.
PICTURED: Junior Evaristo-Benitez, 21, of Honduras, was arrested and charged with assault on a public servant, a third-degree felony, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Public Safety confirmed.
A group of about 600 immigrants who entered the United States illegally crossed the border Thursday in El Paso, Texas.
A migrant watches others breach concertina wire in the Rio Grande in El Paso, Texas, on Thursday, March 21, 2024. The migrants were awaiting processing by Border Patrol.
About 600 immigrants who crossed the barriers installed on the Rio Grande, in El Paso,
‘Those people were not trying to enter the country peacefully; They were storming the doors,’ Texas Congressman Tony Gonzales, who represents east El Paso, said in a telephone interview on Friday.
‘What do you think they’re going to do when they’re released across the country?’
The migrants tried to storm the border on Wednesday night, throwing rocks at members of the Texas National Guard, but ended up dispersing, another source explained.
“There were probably only a dozen leaders of the network and then the rest (of the immigrants) simply followed them,” explained a police source.
Around 600 immigrants were detained by the US Border Patrol when all was said and done, however the vast majority will not face charges.
“There have to be repercussions for people who break the law,” Gonzales added.
“This is wrong… it’s wrong on every level.”
Tension had been rising ahead of the riot since Wednesday night.
Some rioters had been planning to pass the guard members and began throwing stones at the soldiers.
However, the migrants dispersed and returned the next morning.
Members of the Texas National Guard work with Border Patrol to coordinate migrants who crossed the border from Mexico and made their way through barbed wire as they wait to be processed by border patrol while being detained on the U.S. side of the Rio Grande, in El Paso, Texas
Migrants violate infrastructure established by the Texas National Guard on the Rio Grande in El Paso, Texas, on Thursday.
A migrant shows an injury he reportedly suffered after a Texas National Guard forced him to return south of the barrier set up by the Texas National Guard on the Rio Grande in El Paso, Texas.
The migrant families who were part of the mob of 600 people are waiting to be processed by the US Border Patrol.
The immigrants were already in the United States because they had already crossed the international border, which is located a few hundred meters south of the border wall.
Many of these asylum-seeking immigrants had chosen not to turn themselves in immediately, as this is a well-known location to turn themselves in to US Border Patrol agents, because they were stuck in limbo due to an SB4 law. Texas.
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 agents such as the U.S. Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The law, which has been banned several times in recent days by federal courts, was allowed to take effect for a few hours Tuesday, before being blocked again Tuesday night.
The legal whiplash left many immigrants unsure of what would happen to them if they turned themselves in to the Border Patrol.
The crowd was camping in the no man’s land between the north of the river that separates the United States and Mexico, the Rio Grande.
The river is the international border, not the border wall.
On Thursday morning, the migrants jumped over the chain-link fence in coordination and ran toward the border wall to presumably forcibly surrender.
However, Democratic Congresswoman Veronica Escobar blamed the national guard, ordered there by Governor Greg Abbott as part of his border security plan, Operation LoneStar.
“Today’s event makes two things clear: First, Operation Lone Star is ineffective and does not work,” the El Paso official said in a statement.
“The Texas National Guard is not trained to process immigrants and their presence impedes federal law enforcement.”