El Paso is a ghost town days after stampede involving 600 MIGRANTS as Gov. ... trends now
The site of last week's migrant riot in El Paso had largely emptied out Monday, as the Texas National Guard sent in more troops and reinforced the crossing with more razor wire.
Thursday, some 600 migrants stormed the barrier placed by Texas soldiers and had violent confrontations-- resulting in the arrest of one migrant for assaulting a service member.
Junior Evaristo-Benitez, 21, of Honduras, has been charged with assault on a public servant, a 3rd degree felony, and is being held at the El Paso County Jail, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety confirmed.
'We continue to reinforce border barriers and repel any illegal immigrants,' Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted Monday.
'Texas is holding the line.'
A migrant man looks to breach a heavily fortified razor wire fence from the bank of the Rio Grande river in El Paso, Texas, U.S., March 24
Most migrants moved away from Gate 36, the site of last week's riot, looking for less fortified areas to enter the US
A dozen additional migrants were identified as 'ringleaders' in planning Thursday's riot will also be facing federal charges, sources told DailyMail.com.
The migrants had attempted to storm the border Wednesday night, throwing rocks at Texas National Guard members, but ended up dispersing, another source explained.
Images of the bedlam showed hordes of migrants first climbing over a triple layer of razor wire and then pushing past and overpowering national guard members who tried to stop them.
Over the weekend, soldiers under Abbott's direction continued to turn away migrants who had already crossed into the US and were attempting to make asylum claims with the US Border Patrol.
In order to reach federal agents, migrants had to get past guards members first who held .
Texas has spent a staggering $10 billion on the governor's border security plan, however, it's unclear how much of an impact it's having on border crossings.
The number of migrants illegally entering the country through the Lone Star State has sharply fallen off since December.
Once ground zero for the border crisis, migrant encounters in Eagle Pass have fallen from a high of 23,000 in one week to 2,600 in one week of March, per federal statistics.
Instead, traffic has shifted to hotspots in California and Arizona.
In February, 87,000 migrants came into California and Arizona, compared to 53,000
