A federal judge in Texas ruled on Easter Sunday that some of the illegal border crossers accused of storming the National Guard members guarding the Lone Star State border should be released with no-cost bail.
Presiding Magistrate Judge Humberto Acosta decided via teleconference on March 31 that the hoard of illegal border crossers who stampeded the Texas border last month are free to go.
The Texas Department of Public Safety arrested hundreds of illegal border crossers for riot participation, criminal mischief, and even assault charges along the El Paso border on March 21. Footage of the stampede shows the rioters, mostly Venezuelan males, tearing down razor wire barriers and mobbing the “severely outnumbered” Texas National Guard members to illegally force their way into the Lone Star State.
Despite the violent nature of the rioters, Acosta granted most of them personal recognizance, meaning they simply had to sign papers promising they would appear in court instead of posting monetary bail. Only the arrested illegal border crossers who face federal detention holds will remain jailed.
Acosta justified the decision by blaming the local District Attorney’s office for failing to adequately prepare for detention hearings.
“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, according to the El Paso Times.
Acosta’s decision comes just after U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported the highest number of illegal border crosser encounters in the month of February since the agency began tracking apprehensions in 2000: 189,900.
Texas has tried to exercise its authority to deport illegal border crossers entering the U.S. through the Lone Star State borer but has faced repeated legal and political attacks from the Biden administration for it.
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