New videos on Thursday show a "riot" of illegal migrants attempting to enter the United States from Mexico at the El Paso border in Texas as a reporter said the Texas National Guard was "overrun by migrants."
Crossings on the southwest land border in Texas
totaled 68,260 in January, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data—a drop from the 149,806 migrants who entered in December, but still among the highest rates in the country, further encouraging state officials to try and take matters into their own hands.
Migrants seeking asylum in the United States cross the Rio Bravo on the border of Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua state, Mexico on March 19, 2024. A "riot" purportedly broke out in El Paso on March 21... MoreHERIKA MARTINEZ/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
Efforts by
Republican Texas Governor
Greg Abbott and other conservative officials to
enact their own immigration laws, allowing for the arrest, detainment and removal of suspected illegal immigrants, continue to be litigated.
After the
Supreme Court voted Tuesday to allow the law—Texas
Senate Bill 4—to be enacted, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals placed the
legislation back on hold.
The scene was
described as a "riot" by
New York Post reporter Jennie Taer, who said that there were hundreds of migrants who had "decided they had enough" of Texas soldiers returning them to Mexico.
"This is the moment when TX National Guard became overrun by migrants rioting to get across the border here in El Paso today," Taer wrote in a post on X, accompanied by a different angle of the scene from the U.S. side of the border. "We were there and saw it all happen. Absolute chaos here."
In a separate video posted by Taer on X, she described the moment Texas National Guard became "overrun by migrants" as a fence is seen being pulled down. Taer also described the scene as "absolute chaos."