EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – The District Attorney’s Office is proceeding with charges against at least 40 of the more than 200 migrants originally accused of participating in a riot at the border wall on March 21 in El Paso.
The DA’s Office on Monday filed misdemeanor riot participation charges against Arturo Segundo Alcala, Yoser Duan Patino, Sebastian Johan Tarazola and 36 others in connection with the incident. Similar charges were filed against another individual on Sunday as the DA has decided to move forward with those prosecutions.
The confrontation between a large group of asylum-seekers and members of the Texas Army National Guard in front of the wall’s Gate 36 garnered international attention. A video showing migrants tearing down razor wire and breaking through a line of soldiers went viral on the internet. One guardsman suffered injuries after a migrant stomped his knee.
The Texas Department of Public Safety referred 220 of the more than 400 migrants who broke through to the El Paso DA’s Office for prosecution. District Attorney Bill D. Hicks said last week seven are in custody and charged with felony state charges and two others are being sought.
In addition, more than 200 migrants were booked on riot participation, a class B misdemeanor charge. “We’ll have to review those cases and we’ll look at them on a case-by-case basis, and I don’t know that we’re going to prosecute everyone,” Hicks said last Tuesday. “I don’t know. But I know we have to send a message that violence and destruction of property is not going to be tolerated.”
Many of the migrants remain at the El Paso County Jail. A jail magistrate earlier allowed for some others to post personal recognizance bonds — and nearly 40 more consented to their bond hearing being waved so they could stay in touch with a public defender.
Hicks said the ones released on PR bonds likely went into Border Patrol custody for removal, as they came into the country illegally between ports of entry.
