On Sunday, a judge ruled, during an online teleconference bond hearing, that all the migrants arrested for “riot participation” at the US border with Mexico were to be released.
El Paso Magistrate Judge Humberto Acosta, the presiding Criminal Jail Magistrate, accused the El Paso District Attorney’s Office of not being ready to proceed with detention hearings for the defendants on Easter Sunday.
“It is the ruling of the court that all the rioting participation cases will be released on their own recognizance,” Judge Acosta ordered.
It is not known how many were charged with “riot participation,” but Acosta said “hundreds of arrestees” were entitled to their own detention hearings within 48 hours.
Assistant District Attorney Ashley M. Martinez requested a continuance to have the hearings at a later date but it was rejected by Acosta.
“So if the DA’s office is telling me that they are not ready to go, what we’re going to do is we’re going to release all these individuals on their own recognizance,” Acosta said at the hearing.
The defendants -mostly men from Venezuela- were arrested by the Texas Department of Public Safety after partaking in a stampede that tore down razor wire along the Rio Grande and rushed the border fence being guarded by the National Guard in the Riverside area of El Paso’s Lower Valley, according to the El Paso Times.
Some of the defendents were also charged with assault of a public servant after running over Texas National Guard troops.
Two other migrants were released later Sunday by Magistrate Judge Antonio Aun despite having federal immigration holds blocking their release.
One of them is facing criminal mischief charges for allegedly cutting border fencing.
The El Paso Times attempted to speak with the District Attorney’s Office but could not reach the office for comment on Sunday because the County offices were closed Friday for Good Friday and closed on Monday for César Chávez Day.
According to a recent El Paso County announcement, the county is looking to hire someone for the position of Chairperson for the County Bond Advisory Committee.
Their duties would include upholding “transparency and accountability in the County’s
bond-related processes.”
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