Presiding Magistrate Judge Humberto Acosta delivered a ruling on Easter Sunday during an online teleconference bond hearing in which he released hundreds of illegal aliens on their own recognizance. The El Paso judge said that only those with an immigration hold on them will remain jailed.
Why did he do that? Acosta said that the El Paso District Attorney’s Office was not ready to proceed with detention hearings for each defendant. Another hearing is scheduled for more defendants today.
These illegal aliens are the ones who produced a “border riot” as they stampeded over the border which overwhelmed National Guard troops along the Rio Grande River. It happened on March 21. Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) arrested them. They were mostly male and from Venezuela. They tore down razor wire along the river and then rushed the border fence. The location was at Border Safety Initiative Marker No. 36 in the Riverside area of El Paso’s Lower Valley.
Some illegals were charged with assault of a public servant for knocking down National Guard troops during the chaos the stampede created. Allegedly, the illegal aliens wanted to surrender to Border Patrol agents and claim asylum. It is not clear if the judge’s ruling applied to the riot participation charge and not to assault criminal mischief charges from the chaotic border stampede.
It is not known how many illegal aliens were booked on the charge of riot participation, which is a Class B misdemeanor. Judge Acosta mentioned hundreds of arrestees, though. He said they were all entitled to individual detention hearings within 48 hours.
Assistant District Attorney Ashley M. Martinez requested a continuance to have the hearings at a later date. Acosta rejected her request.
But wait. There’s more. Another magistrate judge was working on Easter Sunday, too.
Later on Sunday morning, two other migrants, including a Colombian man, had separate hearings on criminal mischief charges for allegedly cutting border fencing. They were jailed under a $2,000 bond each. Magistrate Judge Antonio Aun granted their release on personal recognizance bonds. Both men have immigration holds.
So, they were also released, even though they had immigration holds. What could go wrong?
Last month, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds and other Republican governors met with Governor Abbott over the Biden border crisis. The governors committed to sending resources to Texas. Governor Reynolds said on Thursday that she is sending 100 Iowa State Patrol officers and National Guard soldiers to the Texas-Mexico border.
“These deployments will help Texas on the frontlines of this crisis,” Reynolds said in the statement. “I am grateful to all the members of the Iowa Department of Public Safety and the Iowa National Guard for volunteering for the deployment. It’s a testament to their leadership and willingness to serve.”
Reynolds, if successful in her work to pass a law like Texas SB 4 on arresting and deporting illegal aliens, will likely find Iowa being sued by Biden’s DOJ, as is Texas. Biden doesn’t want to do his job but doesn’t want the states to do it.
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