An accused instigator of the violent caught-on-camera El Paso border riot on March 21 remains at large in the US, despite allegedly assaulting a Texas soldier, The Post has exclusively learned.
Venezuelan migrant Gabriel Enrique Angarita Carrasquero, 22, is one of the two accused riot instigators who were released into the US by Border Patrol following the incident and remains on the run.
He is alleged to have assaulted a Texas soldier, according to an internal federal memo on his case reviewed by The Post.
The other eight instigators are now in state custody and face hefty charges.
A Texas law enforcement source confirmed Texas authorities have yet to track Carrasquero down, adding the address in Phoenix he gave to Border Patrol agents as his final destination isn’t where he actually went.
New details on Carrasquero’s case also indicated Border agents failed to review footage of the border riot to identify the migrant’s role, before releasing him.
It does not appear Carrasquero was placed in the Alternatives to Detention electronic monitoring scheme which allows Border Patrol to monitor where migrants are within the country.
A “cooperating migrant” had earlier told Border agents Carrasquero was an “instigator” among the group who stormed the fence, according to internal documents previously seen by The Post.
The informant said he saw “Carrasquero use [a] rope to pull the gate down which subsequently led to the migrant rush into the United states bypassing National Guard,” although that information has yet to be corroborated.
Carrasquero was one of two alleged instigators of the riot released by Border Patrol. The other, Juan Jose Colorado Gutierrez, 35, was later captured by Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS). He was tracked down as he had been enlisted in Alternatives to Detention.
Before border agents released Carrasquero and Gutierrez, both migrants allegedly “admitted” to entering the US illegally with the hundreds of others who “rushed the National Guard,” according to documents seen by The Post.
Despite their admissions, Border Patrol released them because they lacked detention space.
In addition to the nine accused ringleaders who’ve been hit with felony charges, there are 214 people charged with rioting for the attempted incursion, which was caught on camera by The Post.
The riot charges carry a sentence of up to 180 days in jail and a $2,000 fine.
“The district attorney’s office [is] taking this very seriously and obviously the governor’s office is taking it very seriously,” El Paso District Attorney Bill Hicks previously told The Post.
“The situation that we had is very unusual for us here in El Paso. We just don’t typically have that level of violence like that. El Paso for the most part is a very peaceful city,” added Hicks.
Texas has increasingly fortified its border with Mexico since the riot, adding more manpower and wire to deter illegal crossings.
Areas like San Diego, California, are now becoming hotspots for migrant apprehensions, but migrants are stil finding ways to evade authorities and cross into the US illegally.
Around 750 migrants sneak into the country per day on average and more than 900 migrants are known to have got over the border undetected in a single day on Sunday, according to a report.