A Texas judge has again dismissed charges against hundreds of migrants who were arrested by law enforcement after rushing a border gate in El Paso, The Texas Tribune reported.
Concretely, judge Ruben Morales dismissed the 211 rioting charges related to the gate rush. Morales had already issued such a decision in relation to a previous incident, saying then that arrest affidavits from Border Patrol didn't show probable cause that all people took part in it.
However, the cases were revived when district attorney Bill Hicks pressed misdemeanor charges against the migrants and sent the case to a grand jury, whose members ended up indicting the accused in late April.
They were accused of rioting charges, which authorities say began when some cut through razor wire to enter the country. If convicted, those charged could spend up to 180 days in a county jail and be fined up to $2,000. A smaller group involved in the wire-cutting face federal charges of felony and assaulting a public servant.
Hicks defended his decision saying his goal was holding people accountable and had "nothing to do with immigration." "This is a matter of people committing a crime and destroying property and endangering lives."
The district attorney anticipated he will appeal the new ruling by Morales, and that if a higher court upholds the motion he will issue arrest warrants for all 211 migrants whose cases are currently dismissed.
The goal is to also take them to a local grand jury and "ask those 12 people in our community what do they think." "It's appropriate that our community has the opportunity to speak," he said.
Despite Hicks' statements, migrant advocates believe the decision are in fact tied to immigration, more specifically to Texas seeking new ways to deter migrants from crossing into the country through its territory.
"It turns my stomach that these people are nothing more than than, you know, political coins in a bet that some of our government officials have hedged," Kelli Childress-Diaz, the El Paso Public Defender who represents the defendants, told The Associated Press.
The strategy seems to be having an effect. More migrants were encountered by Border Patrol agents outside of Texas each of the first three months of this year, according to the Texas Tribune. During the 2023 fiscal year, Texas on average accounted for roughly 59% of migrant encounters along the southwest border. During the first half of the 2024 fiscal year, which began in October, Texas has on average accounted for 43% of migrant encounters.
In this context, Arizona and California have become the current immigration hotspots in the United States, as smugglers turn away from Texas and seek paths of less resistance.
A sheriff in Cochise County, Arizona, told Border Report that these illegal organizations adjust their routes as soon as U.S. law enforcement pours resources into an area. And while California has seen the largest amount of apprehensions in the past month, Arizona still leads the country in this area this fiscal year.
© 2024 Latin Times. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
