By: Jason Hopkins, Daily Caller News Foundation
A county judge has once again dismissed charges against a group of illegal immigrants accused of rioting at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Democratic El Paso County Judge Ruben Morales dismissed 59 cases against illegal migrants accused of participating in a border riot in April, ruling that his court has no jurisdiction over the matter, according to local reports. The group of migrants were charged with rioting after allegedly breaking through concertina wire at the border and rushing members of the Texas National Guard near El Paso’s Lower Valley.
“The judge ruled that [filing of the charges] was done in a way that was improper with respect to constitutional and statutory procedure,” El Paso Public Defender Kelli Childress stated, according to the El Paso Times. “None of these problems have been at the fault of the judge or my clients,”
“It’s been very frustrating to watch this happen over and over again,” Childress continued. “This is the third dismissal of these charges while these people have had to sit in jail for.”
The charges stem from a mass illegal crossing that took place on April 12 along the border near El Paso, in which the migrants cut razor wire and rushed into the U.S. There were more than 300 individuals in the group at the time of the incident, but a state prosecutor alleged that the push forward by roughly 140 of them prompted the Texas National State Guard to pull back, constituting a riot.
Judge Morales dismissed 140 cases against those migrants later that month, ruling that no probable cause existed. The dismissal at the time didn’t preclude the El Paso District Attorney’s Office from lodging those charges again at the alleged rioters — which is what the office did.
However, Morales again dismissed the rioting charges on Monday, finding that they were improperly filed. El Paso District Attorney Bill Hicks denied his office misfiled the indictments against the illegal immigrants, arguing instead that the files were transferred to Morales’ courtroom, according to the El Paso Times.
The El Paso District Attorney’s Office may still lodge rioting charges against the migrants once again, but it’s not immediately clear if it will. The office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The migrants involved still face federal illegal entry charges, and federal immigration authorities have lodged detainer requests for them.
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