US attorney to prosecute ring leaders from migrant stampede in El Paso where SIX HUNDRED illegal border crossers stormed Texas National Guard troops

Federal authorities are pursuing criminal charges for about a dozen illegal immigrants who led a wild and chaotic riot at the border in El Paso, Texas, on Thursday and were identified through law enforcement cameras, DailyMail.com can reveal.

At least one migrant will face charges for attacking a member of the Texas National Guard during the incident in which troops tried to prevent a gang of migrants from reaching the border wall on Thursday, federal sources told DailyMail.com on condition of anonymity.

“Those people were not trying to enter the country peacefully; they stormed the gates,” Texas Congressman Tony Gonzales, who represents East El Paso, said in a telephone interview Friday.

“What do you think they’re going to do when they’re released across the country?”

The migrants had tried to storm the border on Wednesday evening, throwing rocks at members of the Texas National Guard, but eventually dispersed, another source explained.

Footage from the madhouse showed 600 migrants first climbing over a triple layer of barbed wire and then pushing past them, overwhelming National Guard members who tried to stop them.

A migrant observes others breaching the concertina wire on the Rio Grande in El Paso, Texas, on Thursday, March 21, 2024. The migrants hoped to be processed by border police.

About 600 migrants who breached barriers on the Rio Grande in El Paso

“There were probably only about a dozen ring leaders and the rest (of the migrants) just followed,” a law enforcement source explained.

About 600 migrants were taken into custody by U.S. Border Patrol when it was all said and done, but the vast majority will not face charges.

“There should be repercussions for people who break the law,” Gonzales added.

‘This is wrong. This is wrong on all levels.”

Tensions had increased since Wednesday evening in the run-up to the riot.

“Hundreds of migrants were pushed south of the Concertina Wire in the middle of the night by the Texas National Guard,” explained photographer J. Omar Ornelas, who lay on the ground. in a tweet.

“Hours later, they breached the concertina again and rushed to the border wall in El Paso, Texas.”

Members of the Texas National Guard are working with Border Patrol to coordinate migrants who have crossed the border from Mexico and made their way through concertina wire as they await processing by the Border Patrol while being stopped on the U.S. side of the Rio Grande , in El Paso, Texas

Migrants breach infrastructure set up by the Texas National Guard on the Rio Grande in El Paso, Texas on Thursday

A migrant shows an injury he claimed to have suffered after a Texas National Guardsman forced him to return south from the barrier set up by the Texas National Guard on the Rio Grande in El Paso, Texas

Migrant families who were part of the 600-strong gang are awaiting processing by U.S. Border Patrol

The migrants are already in the US because they have already crossed the international border, which is a few hundred meters south of the border wall.

Many of these asylum-seeking migrants had opted not to surrender immediately because this is a known place to surrender to U.S. Border Patrol agents as they were in limbo due to a Texas law SB4.

The controversial law authorizes state and local police in the Lone Star State to arrest illegal immigrants, a right reserved only for federal officials such as the U.S. Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The law, which has been banned several times by federal courts in recent days, was then allowed to take effect for a few hours on Tuesday before being blocked again on Tuesday evening.

The legal whiplash left many migrants unsure what would happen to them if they surrendered to Border Patrol.

The crowd camped in the no man’s land between the Rio Grande, north of the river that divides the US and Mexico.

The river is the international border, not the border wall.

On Wednesday evening, the Texas National Guard rounded up hundreds of migrants and forced them south of the razor wire, which remains in the US.

On Thursday morning, the migrants climbed the fencing in coordination and ran to the border wall, presumably turning themselves in by force.

However, Democratic Congresswoman Veronica Escobar blamed the National Guard, which was ordered there by Governor Greg Abbott as part of his border security plan, Operation LoneStar.

“Today’s event makes two things clear: the first Operation Lone Star is ineffective and not working,” the El Paso official said in a statement.

“The Texas National Guard is not trained to process migrants and their presence hinders federal law enforcement.”