Federal authorities are seeking criminal charges against about a dozen illegal immigrants who led a wild and chaotic riot at the border in El Paso, Texas on Thursday and were identified via police cameras, DailyMail.com can reveal.
At least one migrant will be charged with assaulting a Texas National Guard member during the incident in which troops tried to prevent a mob of migrants from reaching the border wall on Thursday, federal sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told DailyMail.com.
‘Those people did not try to enter the country peacefully; they stormed the gates,” Texas Congressman Tony Gonzales, who represents East El Paso, said in a phone interview Friday.
‘What do you think they will do when they are released across the country?’
The migrants had tried to storm the border Wednesday night and threw rocks at Texas National Guard members, but ended up dispersing, another source said.
Images of the bedlam showed 600 migrants first climbing over a triple layer of razor wire before pushing past and overpowering members of the National Guard who tried to stop them.
A group of about 600 migrants who entered the United States illegally rushed to the border in El Paso, Texas on Thursday
A migrant observes others who broke the accordion wire on the Rio Grande in El Paso, Texas, Thursday, March 21, 2024. The migrants were hoping to be processed by the Border Patrol
About 600 migrants who breached the barriers on the Rio Grande in El Paso,
“There were probably only about a dozen ring leaders, and then the rest (of the migrants) just followed along,” a law enforcement source explained.
About 600 migrants were taken into custody by the US Border Patrol when it was all said and done, but the vast majority will not face charges.
“There have to be consequences for people who break the law,” Gonzales added.
“This is wrong – it’s wrong on every level.”
The tension had been building up to the riot since Wednesday night.
A few troublemakers had intended to get past guard members and started throwing stones at the soldiers.
However, the migrants dispersed and returned the next morning.
Members of the Texas National Guard work with the Border Patrol to coordinate migrants who crossed the border from Mexico and forced their way through accordion wire while waiting to be processed by Border Patrol when they are stopped on the U.S. side of the Rio Grande in El . Paso, Texas
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 claimed he sustained 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 the US Border Patrol
The migrants were already in the United States as they had already crossed the international border, which is a few hundred meters south of the border wall.
Many of these asylum-seeking migrants had chosen not to turn themselves in right away, as this is a well-known place to surrender to US Border Patrol agents, because they were caught in limbo because of a Texas law SB4.
The controversial law authorizes state and local police in the Lone Star State to arrest illegal immigrants, a right that has been reserved only for federal officers such as the US Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The law, which has been blocked several times in recent days by federal courts, was then allowed to take effect for a few hours Tuesday before being blocked again Tuesday evening.
The legal crackdown left many migrants unsure of what would happen to them if they surrendered to the Border Patrol.
The crowds camped out in the no man’s land between 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 climbed over the wire fence in coordination and ran towards the border wall, presumably to sign in by force.
However, Democratic Congresswoman Veronica Escobar blamed the National Guard, ordered there by Gov. 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 not working,” the El Paso official said in a statement.
‘The Texas National Guard is not trained to deal with migrants and their presence hampers federal law enforcement.’