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Posts Tagged ‘U.S. Border Patrol’

Anastasio Hernandez Rojas Haunting in the Shadow of S.B. 1070

7:15 am By Maegan La Mala · Immigration|Justice|U.S.-Mexico Border · 7 Comments

25 Apr 2012

The criminalization of immigrants in border states like Arizona has been in the news this week since the Supreme Court today begins hearing the U.S. federal government make the case that parts of Arizona’s S.B. 1070 step on the toes of national enforcement and therefore should be nixed. Not so much in the news is the way that federal policy has contributed to that criminalization and in fact has led the way by militarizing the Mexico U.S. border with deadly results.

Two years ago Anastasio Hernandez Rojas was killed by border patrol agents. You can find our original post about it here. At the time of his death, DREAMers in New York City were holding a hunger strike in front of Senator Schumer’s Manhattan office. Today, there is no DREAM Act, no New York Dream Act, and no justice for Anastasio Hernandez Rojas and the family he left behind. What we do have two years later is more hard evidence that the border patrol agents responsible for the death of a father and a husband acted brutally.

Last Friday, the PBS news series, Need to Know, in partnership with the Nation Institute, aired an investigation on the use of excessive force by U.S. border patrol agents. In this episode there is video evidence that 42 year old Hernandez Rojas was beaten. On his hospital deathbed, he is bruised. Eyewitness video features graphic heartbreaking screams of the father of five pleading for his life. Never before released eyewitness video shows a dozen or so border agents standing over and around Hernandez Rojas handcuffed and hogtied on the ground being tased five times. Not in the video, evidence of Hernandez Rojas being aggressive and violent as claimed by officials.

Although the official cause of death on Hernandez Rojas death certificate is homicide, the names of of those involved remain unknown. There is currently no investigation.

Far from being a one off, eight people have been killed along the border over the past two years at the hands of the largest police force in the U.S., border patrol agents. In all the cases there were no investigations. No trials and certainly no convictions. In fact according to the report, when the ACLU filed a Freedom of Information Act request for information regarding Border Patrol policy and procedure on the use of force, specifically taser and deadly force, the response was useless blacked out papers. Is this the additional “boots on the ground” border policy that Obama so proudly proclaims? Is this what is being argued in favor of by a Department of Justice who is defending its right to enforce immigration laws while arguing against state laws like S.B. 1070?

I am not denying the horrible nature of state anti-immigrant legislation which impacts the daily life of all Latinos. But I will also not ignore the spirits of the dead like Anastasio, Sergio Adrian Hernandez Güereca, the spirits of the women sexually assaulted on the border by law enforcement, and Ramses Barron Torres – all crying for justice.

Parents of Mexican Teen Killed by Border Patrol File Suit

9:25 am By Maegan La Mala · Immigration|mexico|U.S.-Mexico Border|Violence · 5 Comments

18 Jan 2011

When 15 year old Sergio Adrian Hernandez-Huereca was shot and killed by the U.S. Border Patrol last summer, there was a rush to kill the Mexican youth again, by killing his reputation, by saying he deserved what he got, that is bullets to meet rocks that in all likelihood he didn’t even throw. There was a rush to label him a smuggler, a criminal, as if that justified an extralegal shooting into Mexican territory. The name of the agent that fired the lethal bullet has never been released, just like the name of the Border Patrol agent who shot and killed Ramses Barron Torres has not been released. Well the parents of Sergio Adrian Hernandez-Huereca just filed a lawsuit against the United States and this could be a step towards justice.

Justice is not the $25 million dollars asked for in the civil suit, but rather the process that goes with the civil suit that could force information from the U.S. Government, who has gone out of it’s way to protect Border Patrol Agents who kill unarmed Mexicans, perhaps in Mexican territory.

“Part of this lawsuit seeks to require the government to turn over the border camera video and see it and get a better look at it,” said Bob Hilliard, attorney for Sergio’s family.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in El Paso, names the Department of Homeland Security, The U.S. Border Patrol, the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and an “unnamed agent” of the U.S. Border Patrol as defendants.
“The parents are hopeful that the main thing they get is an accounting of the Border Patrol’s conduct,” Hilliard said, adding he is hoping that criminal charges will be filed against the agent.

The Other Arizona Shooting

10:09 am By Maegan La Mala · arizona|Immigration|mexico|U.S.-Mexico Border|Violence · 6 Comments

11 Jan 2011

Before Congresswoman Gifford and others were shot in Tuscon, Arizona , 17 year old Ramses Barron Torres was shot and killed by a bullet originating in Nogales, Arizona. There have been no national moments of silence for the apparently unarmed teenager. No memes speculating on the sanity of the shooter(s) or if violent rhetoric played a role. That’s probably because Ramses Barron Torres is Mexican and was shot by U.S. Border Patrol.

The story on what actually happened to Torres depends on what source you believe. From Immigration Clearinghouse:

It took the players all day to get their stories to a point where it was agreed that the agents fired their weapons into the air, and they put Torres as either “in the US, throwing rocks at agents, when he fell and hit his head on a rock and died”, or, he fell from the fence which he was trying to scale while chunking rocks at BP agents, a truly awesome display of athletic ability were it to be true.

But something wierd happened. Torres body showed up at a hospital in Nogales Sonora with a gunshot wound, throwing all to hell the claims that he was in the US throwing rocks at BP agents.

…

The Sonora State Investigative Police, or PEI, said 17-year-old Ramses Barron Torres, who died shortly after 3 a.m. at a Nogales, Sonora hospital, was shot in the back of the right arm, with the bullet continuing into his chest cavity, puncturing a lung, and lodging in the left side of his ribcage.

In “the back of the right arm” meaning Torres would have had his back to the BP agents who murdered him.

Increase of Border Patrol Agents = Increase in Border Violence

1:55 pm By Maegan La Mala · Immigration|mexico|U.S.-Mexico Border|Violence · 1 Comment

9 Sep 2010

Even before the recent increase of border patrol agents along the U.S. Mexico border, la frontera was not a safe place for those living, working and playing nearby.

An article in the L.A. Times published this week, the paper reports that in the last 18 months five Border Patrol agents have been accused or convicted of sex crimes or assaults including one agent who pleaded guilty in January to raping a woman while off duty, and another who is accused of sexually assaulting a migrant while her young children were nearby in a car. These are only the cases that we know of. Think about how many assaults go unreported or unprosecuted and like many of the recent alleged police brutality cases, some of the officials involved are Latinos.

So when DHS Secretary Napolitano crows about how the numbers that are supposed to be going up are going up, one has to wonder if she feels that the increase in sexual assaults and physical assaults are numbers that also are supposed to go up, as inevitable trade offs for the idea of safety for some.

Border Patrol Plays Target Practice with Teenager

9:02 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · children|Immigration|mexico|U.S.-Mexico Border|Violence · 9 Comments

9 Jun 2010

Yesterday I wrote how the homicide of Antonio Hernandez Rojas at the hands of U.S. Border Patrol agents was just the beginning based on how the Obama administration has chosen to go about immigration reform, that is by further militarizing the border with Mexico. I didn’t expect for my prediction to come true so quickly, especially not with the life of a teenager.

Yesterday U.S. Border Patrol shot and killed Sergio Adrian Hernandez Guereca (some reports say he was 14, some say 15) in Texas. U.S. Border Patrol is defending it’s actions, saying that the boy was part of a group that was trying to cross the border into the U.S. without papers. Border Patrol is also saying the group that the boy was with was throwing rocks at their men. Naturally, the proper response to someone throwing rocks at you is to shoot and kill them, especially if they are Mexican.

There have been reports that Sergio was just playing near the border when he was shot, another report I read said that he was visiting a relative who lived in el Norte. Regardless of why Sergio was on the border, regardless of if he had rocks in his hands or not, there is not justification for this. Where is Obama now? Now that he has ordered sending National Guard troops to the border when already this year, which is not even half way over, the number of injuries and deaths on the border at the hands of Border Patrol is higher than it has been in the previous two years. Where are his promises of reform and change? Seems like they are being buried along with the bodies of our children.

The Farm Labor Organizing Committee files Federal lawsuit against US Border Patrol

12:07 pm By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Immigration|Labor · 1 Comment

29 Jan 2010

The Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) and its members have joined
Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, Inc (ABLE), the law firm of Murray
and Murray, Co. L.P.A., and the Immigrant Worker Project (IWP) in filing
a class action complaint against the US Border Patrol and several local
law enforcement agencies in Northwest Ohio. The suit challenges the
Border Patrol and local agencies’ practice of restraining and
interrogating Latinos about their immigration status based solely on
their Hispanic appearance. The suit argues that this violates the 4th
Amendment’s prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures and
the 5th Amendment’s guarantee of due process and equal protection of the
law.

“I think it is imperative that we not only address this issue, but tell
them to quit it,” says Baldemar Velasquez, FLOC founder and President.
“Stop spreading fear in the Latino community and start doing the serious
police work.”

Racial profiling in NW Ohio and SE Michigan worsened after the Bush
administration significantly increased the Border Patrol’s budget. New
offices opened along the border with Canada, affecting Michigan and Ohio
residents. FLOC argues that the Border Patrol may have had difficulty
justifying the increased budget and has subsequently tried to create
numbers by going after farmworkers and other Latinos in the area. One
case presented in the complaint refers to a person who was pulled over
because the light over his license plate was dim. When he presented his
valid Ohio Driver’s License, the officer unreasonably demanded proof of
immigration status from him and his five passengers. All of them turned
out to be lawful permanent residents, but their brown skin seemed to be
cause enough for the local enforcement agent to intrude upon their civil
liberties.

“In some cases”, says ABLE attorney Mark Heller, “the U.S. Border Patrol
has offered to come and restrain and interrogate persons that the local
law enforcement agencies have already seized, violating the 14th
Amendment’s guarantee for due process and equal protection of the law.
There really is no legitimate defense to what they are doing”.

*LET’S JOIN FORCES TO PUT A STOP TO THE RACIAL PROFILING BY THE BORDER
PATROL AND LOCAL ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES !!!*

*ACTION:*

1. Please help us by locating members in the community who may have
suffered this type of discriminatory practice. The lawsuit
currently has 12 plaintiffs, but we are certain that there are
hundreds more who have suffered this discriminatory practice.
Contact Beatriz Maya at FLOC bmaya1@floc.com
or 419-243-3456 ext 3.
2. Write or call the US Border Patrol and demand an end to all racial
profiling:

Acting Chief Michael J. Fisher, Office of the Border Patrol

1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW

Washington DC 20229

PH (202) 344-2050

3. Write your member of Congress and ask them to scale back the
bloated funding for the US Border Patrol. You can get contact
information in Spanish and English for your member of Congress at
www.contactingthecongress.org
4. If you want to be involved in the campaign, email: bmaya1@floc.com
; or call FLOC at 419-243-3456 ext. 3

U.S. Border Patrol Reacts to a Rock With a Bullet Into Mexico

1:30 pm By Maegan La Mala · Controversia|crime|Immigration|mexico · 1 Comment

15 Aug 2008

Last time we checked, shooting into another country’s territory was against international law. But the United States Border Patrol isn’t one to get all bogged down international law, especially in the face of rocks.

The incident began unfolding about 10 p.m. Tuesday, when an officer with the federal agency on patrol near the 300 block of Virginia Avenue spotted three or four people attempting to scale the south side of the border fence, according to San Diego police.
The agent fired a pepper-ball gun “in the direction” of the would-be illegal immigrants in an attempt to get them off the barrier, said Lt. Terry McManus of the SDPD Homicide Unit, which investigates all officer-involved shootings in the city.

Moments later, stones “larger than softball-size” and other debris began landing near the agent as he sat in his patrol vehicle, McManus told reporters during an afternoon briefing.

“He believed he was being attacked — he, in fact, was being attacked by individuals on the other side of the border,” the lieutenant said. “They were throwing large rocks, boulders, and in a couple of instances, pieces of concrete block towards him.”

Terrorist Caught at the Border and No He’s Not Mexican!

11:50 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Immigration|mexico · Comments Off

4 Feb 2008

Paul Brennan was arrested by officers at a border checkpoint in southern Texas on Monday night.

The US Border Patrol said Brennan was now in custody and was awaiting deportation.

It said he had been serving a 23-year prison sentence in Northern Ireland on charges of possessing a bomb and a firearm.

So I guess score for all those strong border activists. I think it’s interesting to note that despite the brown scare, the accused is a white man.

Via / BBC and the Mex Files

U.S. Border Patrol “Loses” Patrol Car

12:47 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Immigration · 2 Comments

27 Sep 2007

05.douglas.ap.jpg Concerned about border security? My take on this story is that maybe the U.S. should worry less about fences and more about officer training.

On Sunday a trio of Mexican teens detained for drug smuggling broke free, stole a U.S. Border Patrol vehicle, and drove it to Mexico. Mexican authorities were able to relocate the vehicle without its temporary occupants who apparently have not been caught.
And how was the vehicle stolen in the first place?
“As the agent was doing his search, he left the vehicle running and the keys in the ignition, so one of the lads, still wearing handcuffs, grabbed the steering wheel and they headed back to Mexico,” a police spokesman said.

Funny and oh so sad at the same time. The car was recovered, the detainees were not.

Via/ The Latin Americanist

Maegan La Mala: Thank you Julio! To be honest I was a little nervous. [...]

Ana L. Flores: I was very excited when you decided to join us. I really wanted your voice there as it would add dep [...]

Maegan La Mala: Hola Juliana and thanks for commenting. There is a dearth in activist/critical thinking Latino blogg [...]

Julio Ricardo Varela: Good for you for asking. I got goose bumps just reading this and yes, yes, yes, to it all. Thank you [...]

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