By FAIR Staff
Last week, the State of Texas arrested and took custody of 214 migrants who staged a riot at the border near El Paso on March 21. They have now been charged with rioting and are in state custody, where they will be picked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and put into court proceedings.
The riot, which ironically unfolded while a Congressional committee held a hearing on the Biden Administration’s abuse of our immigration laws, indeed appeared to be a literal invasion of illegal aliens. In a matter of minutes, the illegal migrants tore down fencing and stormed past Texas National Guard troops deployed to back up U.S. Border Patrol. Video of riot was captured by a crew from the New York Post, and the following day, it blanketed the airwaves. It captivated audiences, showing the reality of what law enforcement officers face on a daily basis and proving that the chaos and crisis along the nation’s border has not waded.
According to the New York Post, the migrants were initially taken into Border Patrol custody, but then were swiftly processed and scheduled for release, despite the violence, property damage, and assaults perpetrated on National Guard troops. Still, officials were able to gather information about how the riot unfolded. According to the Post:
“While in federal custody, a “cooperating migrant” identified Venezuelan national Gabriel Enrique Angarita Carrasquero, 22, to border agents as an “instigator” among the group that stormed the border…The informant said “he witnessed Angarita Carrasquero use [a] rope to pull the gate down which subsequently led to the migrant rush into the United States bypassing National Guard. The mole also pointed to Venezuelan migrant Juan Jose Colorado Gutierrez, 35, as another “one of the instigators” who used “wire cutters or bolt cutters to cut the barbed wire” on the US side of the border.”
In response, the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) stepped in and arrested 214 of the aliens, who were still in federal custody at the El Paso jail, and charged them with rioting. Texas Governor Greg Abbott also reinstalled razor wire and deployed 200 additional National Guard soldiers from the Texas Tactical Border Force along the U.S.-Mexico border to intercept illegal aliens attempting to enter in the El Paso area.
Because the state court set the aliens’ bond hearing for Easter Sunday (March 31), the El Paso District Attorney requested that the hearings be postponed for several days. However, the local magistrate judge denied the request and ordered 150 of the migrants to be released.
Still, none of the aliens have actually been released from custody. At the same time, however, not all of the aliens remain in state custody. It appears by the time the magistrate judge ordered the migrants’ release, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had lodged detainers against all of them and assumed custody of the 150 released. In a statement issued to Houston Public Media regarding the migrant rioters, ICE said, it “will lodge an immigration detainer, and once the individual has gone through the judicial process and completed a sentence, or is otherwise released from state or local custody, that individual will be returned to the custody of [Enforcement and Removal Operations] to await a final immigration status determination. Custody status will continue to be reviewed on a case-by-case basis as the individuals go through the immigration process.”
Last Wednesday, Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) confirmed that all the migrants involved in the March 21 riot were being held until ICE could assume custody of them. It also announced that the state had charged nine of the aliens with felony rioting charges (and of those, seven were in state custody). The migrants hailed from various countries, including Venezuela, Guatemala, Ecuador, Colombia, Cuba, Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador.
President Biden and the Secretary of Homeland Security did not provide comment after the rioting. However, White House press secretary Karine Jean Pierre blamed Republicans and Governor Abbott for the chaos, stating, “The razor wire, that’s [Abbott]. The National Guard, that’s him. The Border Patrol agents still did their job. They got in the way, like the governor’s plans got in the way.” She said the House of Representatives has failed to pass the Senate proposal and blamed the Governor for politicizing the issue.
El Paso has been a major crossing point for illegal migrants. In fact, the city’s mayor has issued several disaster declarations in the wake of the current border crisis. The most recent declaration from March 25 stated that “the City is faced with the imminent threat of widespread injury or loss of life resulting from a surge in transient migrants traveling to the region.” In Fiscal Year 2023, the El Paso sector had 482,095 land border encounters and over 174,000 community releases.
These disaster declarations undermine the so-called progress Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas claims to have made in the region. In January 2023, Secretary Mayorkas said the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had surged resources in El Paso by deploying 100 additional Border Patrol agents and additional officers to process illegal aliens for entry. He also touted the use of taxpayer dollars to surge emergency food and shelter funding for the area. In fiscal year 2023, several organizations in El Paso received FEMA funding to support the illegal alien population in the area.
It remains to be seen what will ultimately happen with the El Paso rioters. ICE has said it will assume custody of all of the illegal aliens involved, but ICE may not deport them. Indeed, it could still release them on bond. Unfortunately, the entire incident sends the message to migrants around the world is that stepping foot on U.S. soil is almost certain to lead to freedom under the Biden Administration. Meanwhile, El Paso and other border communities will continue to bear the brunt of the crisis.
