EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – A judge has ruled a foreign national is mentally fit to stand trial for allegedly assaulting border agents at an El Paso migrant processing center.
Aland Donaldo Martinez Vasquez is scheduled to appear next Monday at a detention hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Miguel Angel Torres in El Paso.
The hearing was on pause for months after Martinez’s attorney suggested the defendant was unable to understand the proceedings against him and could not assist in his own defense. But Torres on June 4 ruled there wasn’t sufficient evidence that Martinez suffered from psychosis, mental illness or defect, or doesn’t have a reasonable degree of rational understanding.
The charges stem from a March 7 disturbance at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection soft-sided processing center in Northeast El Paso. Court records show a Border Patrol agent by the last name of Mendoza tended to an individual who “became disruptive” to other migrants in a holding area.