'Cutting' the line
Migrant snips fence to start dash to US
A migrant with bolt cutters snipped a wire border fence Sunday, then led dozens of migrants through the hole — only to be turned back to Mexico by National Guard troops.
The Post observed as the migrants pulled fencing away and pushed through the state’s concertina-wire barrier near a gate in the wall, entering the US illegally, near El Paso, Texas.
Footage of the incident taken by The Post showed guardsmen appearing and blocking the migrants and directing them away from Gate 45, which is not a legal port of entry, and back to Mexican territory. The incident comes after an encounter a few miles away at Gate 36, where more than 100 people rushed Texas National Guard soldiers on Thursday.
Razor wire and fencing have been erected near the border by troops from the National Guard and Texas Department of Public Safety to discourage people from crossing into the US illegally.
During Thursday’s attempted incursion, the group of migrants knocked over five guards who tried to stand in their way. Texas authorities arrested Honduran national Junior Evaristo-Benitez, 21, and charged him with assault on a public servant, a third-degree felony, the state’s Department of
Public Safety Sgt. Eliot Torres said in a statement shared with The Post. Evaristo-Benitez is being held in the El Paso County Jail.
Texas weighs raps
Texas is also reviewing video footage of the incident to determine which migrants were involved. Possible charges against them include criminal mischief, property damage, assaulting soldiers and inciting a riot.
Authorities also confiscated knives and shanks from the migrants who stormed the border Thursday, a National Guard source told The Post. At least one migrant tried to grab a soldier’s firearm during the tense situation.
Some of the troops who responded to the group Thursday were treated at a nearby hospital for minor injuries.
Luis, from Venezuela, crossed the border Thursday with the group of rioters, he told The Post.
“I don’t like what they did. I stayed behind. I was there but behind them. They made the mess,” Luis, who was making his way to Atlanta, said of the migrants.
Border Patrol spokesman Orlando Marrero-Rubio told Border Report that migrants who cross at Gate 36 illegally face potential removal from the country and a five-year entry ban.