PICTURED: First migrant, 21, charged with assaulting Texas National Guardsman during El Paso stampede as feds weigh charges against a dozen 'ring leaders' who planned uprising

A 21-year-old illegal migrant has been charged with assaulting a Texas National Guardsman in the El Paso stampede last week that federal authorities believe was orchestrated by a handful of 'ringleaders'. 

Junior Evaristo-Benitez, 21, of Honduras, was taken into custody and charged with assault on a public servant, a 3rd degree felony, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety confirmed.

He's now being held at the El Paso County Jail. 

Six hundred migrants, made up of mostly single adult males from Venezuela, stormed authorities on Thursday morning, breaching razor wire barriers and overpowering guard members who were trying to stop the migrants from turning themselves over to US Border Patrol near the border wall.

Federal authorities are seeking criminal charges for about a dozen illegal immigrants who led a wild and chaotic riot, as they were identified via law enforcement cameras. 

PICTURED: Junior Evaristo-Benitez, 21, of Honduras, was taken into custody and charged with assault on a public servant, a 3rd degree felony, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety confirmed

A group of about 600 migrants who entered the US illegally rushed the border Thursday in El Paso, Texas

A migrant observes others who breached the concertina wire on the Rio Grande in El Paso, Texas on Thursday, March 21, 2024. The migrants were hoping to be processed by Border Patrol

About 600 migrants who breached the barriers set up on the Rio Grande in El Paso,

'Those people weren't trying to peacefully enter the country; they were storming the gates,' Texas Congressman Tony Gonzales, who represents east El Paso said in a phone interview Friday.

'What do you think they're going to do when they're released all over the country?' 

The migrants had attempted to storm the border Wednesday night, throwing rocks at Texas National Guard members, but ended up dispersing, another source explained. 

'There were probably only about a dozen ring leaders and then rest (of the migrants) just followed along,' one law enforcement source explained.

About 600 migrants were taken into custody by US Border Patrol when it was all said and done, however, the vast majority will not face charges. 

'There has to be repercussions for people who break the law,' Gonzales added.

'This is wrong-- this is wrong on all levels.'

Tension had been building leading up to the riot since Wednesday night.

A few trouble makers had been scheming to get past guard members and began throwing rocks at the soldiers. 

However, the migrants dispersed and returned the next morning. 

Members of the Texas National Guard work with Border Patrol to coordinate migrants who crossed the border from Mexico and forced their way through concertina wire while they wait to be processed by border patrol as they are stopped on the U.S. side of the Rio Grande, in El Paso, Texas

Migrants breach infrastructure set up by the Texas National Guard on the Rio Grande in El Paso, Texas on Thursday

A migrant shows an injury he alleged that he suffered after a Texas National Guard forced him back south of the barrier set up by the Texas National Guard on the Rio Grande in El Paso, Texas

Migrant families who were part of the 600-person mob wait to be processed by US Border Patrol

The migrants were already in the US as they had already crossed the international boundary, which is a few hundred yards south of the border wall.

Many of these asylum seeking migrants had chosen not to turn surrender themselves immediately as this is a well-known place to give up to US Border Patrol agents, because they were caught in limbo due a Texas law SB4.

The controversial law gives state and local police in the Lone Star State permission to arrest illegal immigrants, a right that has only been reserved for federal officers like US Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. 

The law, which has been banned several times in recent days by federal courts, was then allowed to take effect for a few hours Tuesday, before it blocked again Tuesday night.

The legal whiplash left many migrants unsure would would happen to them if they turned themselves over to Border Patrol.

The crowds were camping out in the no-mans land between north of the river that separates the US and Mexico, the Rio Grande. 

The river is the international boundary, not the border wall.

By Thursday morning, the migrants climbed over the wire fence in coordination and made a run for the border wall to presumably turn themselves in by force.

However, Democratic Congresswoman Veronica Escobar blamed the national guard, ordered there by Gov. Greg Abbott as part of his border security plan, Operation LoneStar.

 'Today's event make two things clear: first Operation Lone Star is ineffective and does not work,' the El Paso official said in a statement.

'Texas National Guard are not trained to process migrants and their presence impedes federal law enforcement.'