EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – A Mexican judge has ordered two Venezuelan migrants to remain in jail pending trial for the Dec. 30 beating death of an immigration officer near a highway checkpoint 30 miles south of Juarez, Mexico.
David J.V. and Carlos Arichuna S.M. will face charges of injuries leading to death of a federal public servant, the Mexican Attorney General’s Office said on Monday.
The two men were heading to the U.S. border and allegedly tried to circumvent the checkpoint by going around a hill. National Migration Institute Agent Luis Alberto Olivas Garcia attempted to place them in custody when the two men assaulted him, INM said in a statement last week.
In court testimony Monday reported in local news media, prosecutors alleged the two Venezuelans pelted Olivas with rocks when he approached them, then physically assaulted him and shoved him down the hill.
Two men from Venezuela were arrested in connection with the beating death of an immigration agent in Samalayuca, Chihuahua. (Chihuahua State Police.)
David J.V. then walked down and allegedly beat Olivas on the head with a large rock until he died, prosecutors alleged. The two suspects are to remain in a Juarez prison until the next hearing in three months.
Although no motive was discussed for the assault, Chihuahua Public Safety Director Gilberto Loya on Monday said smugglers have been encouraging migrants on their way to the United States to resist Mexican authorities at every turn.
“We don’t want to criminalize migration; migration is a human right,” Loya said at a news conference broadcast on social media on Monday. “However, the coming of a new U.S. president has prompted more migrants to (come). This has led to several developments, one of them being the migrants’ disdain for Mexican authorities. This, added to desperation to get to the United States, can lead to things like what happened to the INM agent.”
Loya said state officers assisted in the arrest of the immigration agent’s alleged attackers. He said the smugglers who facilitate foreign nationals’ passing through Mexico lately have been telling their clients about the limitations Mexican laws place on public servants charged with enforcing immigration regulations.
“They are so well coached about (these) limitations that they think they can act in any way around authorities without (consequence),” Loya said. “It’s true that migration is a human right, but it’s also true we will not allow any incident against any authority in the state.”
He added that state officers on Sunday located and rescued 26 migrants kept in an overcrowded stash house in Juarez.
That illustrates criminal organizations’ widespread involvement in migrant trafficking, including foreign gangs like Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua, he said.
“It’s a topic that no one seems to want to talk about. The reality is that we detected Tren de Aragua presence locally,” he said. “People linked to this gang that passed through El Paso and Juarez were later linked to violent crimes, including homicide, in the United States. […] We know of persons in the United States that stayed in the camp in Chihuahua City.”
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