El Paso County Judge Dismisses Border Riot Charges Against 140 Illegal Immigrants
A judge in El Paso, Texas, made a pivotal decision on Monday regarding the cases of 140 illegal immigrants involved in a recent altercation at the US-Mexico border.
The charges against them, related to storming border patrol agents earlier this month, were dismissed.
All 140 individuals, however, still confront federal charges linked to their unlawful entry into the United States. The group will soon transition from state custody to federal custody to address their charges for illegal entry.
The El Paso Times reported that County Court Judge Ruben Morales asserted that the Texas Department of Public Safety and state troopers had not sufficiently demonstrated probable cause to justify charging individuals implicated in the incident.
He argued, “After reviewing the affidavit, I don’t believe that [probable cause] exists.”
“I don’t believe there is probable cause for these individuals to continue to be detained for the offense of riot participation,” he added.
El Paso County Public Defender Kelli Childress said “this is one step” following the hearing.
“Can the DA go back and indict them now? Sure, but I would hope they would have the integrity to explain to a Grand Jury what probable cause means and the fact that the judge found there was none,” Childress added.
El Paso Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Vandenbosch argued that the illegal immigrants knew exactly what they were doing by “waiting for someone to cut the concertina wire.”
Childress stated during the hearing that the criminal affidavits against each migrant are identical, with only the names of the defendants being altered.
DPS agents in the affidavit use boiler plate language,” she claimed, contending that the allegations against the illegal immigrants are based on “nothing more than hearsay.”
“No evidence of who in the National Guard witnessed the crime,” Childress said. ” … We have nothing that points to these (migrants) participating in a riot.”
We reported earlier this month that presiding Magistrate Judge Humberto Acosta ordered the release of migrants implicated in the “border riot” on Easter Sunday.
He criticized the El Paso District Attorney’s Office for its perceived lack of preparedness in proceeding with detention hearings for each defendant.
Illegal immigrants purportedly orchestrating the border riot near El Paso on the southern border were identified as “cooperating migrants” before their release into the United States.
An illegal immigrant that was held in custody following the stampede alleged that Venezuelan national Gabriel Enrique Angarita Carrasquero and Juan Jose Colorado Gutierrez played pivotal roles as instigators of the riot.
Eyewitness reports cited by the New York Post say Carrasquero allegedly employed a rope to forcefully dismantle a gate, enabling a surge of migrants to evade the National Guard and enter the United States.
Gutierrez was purported to have utilized wire cutters or bolt cutters to sever barbed wire along the US side of the southern border.
Both individuals were notably released by Border Patrol due to capacity constraints in detention facilities. However, they have subsequently been charged with felony offenses for their purported involvement in the incident, which reportedly led to injuries sustained by National Guard troops.
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