El Paso, Texas. A Texas grand jury indicted more than 140 migrants on Tuesday on misdemeanor charges of public nuisance over an attempted mass entry across the U.S.-Mexico border. The decision came a day after a judge dismissed the cases.
No injuries were reported during the alleged April 12 mass invasion in El Paso, which began when a member of the group cut a barbed wire barrier, according to authorities. A similar episode last March in that same border city also resulted in a large number of arrests.
A county judge on Monday had dismissed charges against those arrested this month, determining there was insufficient probable cause. A public lawyer representing the migrants had argued that the evidence was insufficient and she accused authorities of trying to grab headlines.
“The citizens of El Paso, through the grand jury, basically overruled the judge’s ruling and found probable cause to believe that the riot did occur,” El Paso County District Attorney Bill Hicks said in statements to the press.
Kelli Childress-Diaz, the El Paso public attorney representing the 141 defendants, said she was not surprised by the decision.
“I imagine they already had it prepared even before yesterday’s hearing began,” he stressed.
The arrests brought more attention to Texas operations along the border, where Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has implemented a series of aggressive measures to curb illegal crossings. After the arrests last March, Abbott responded by deploying an additional 700 National Guard troops to El Paso.
Hicks, appointed to the bench by Abbott in 2022, stated that although it is not common for a grand jury to present indictments in misdemeanor cases, he felt it was “fair” to present the case to them. In total, according to Hicks’ estimates, more than 350 people have been arrested on riot charges since last month.
If convicted, the defendants could face a sentence of up to 180 days in a county jail and a fine of up to $2,000. Those imprisoned still face federal charges and Hicks noted that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents could go to prison to prosecute them for an offense of illegal entry into the country.
“It makes me sick to my stomach that these people are nothing more than… you know… political chips in a bet by some of our government officials,” Childress-Diaz told The Associated Press.
#Texas #migrants #accused #attempting #massively #enter
– 2024-05-01 06:56:31
