DOMESTIC
WINTER 2015
B
order Patrol agents stopped Anastasio Hernández-Rojas on the
California-Mexican border on
May 28, 2010. A father of five American-born children, Rojas had resided
lawfully in the United States for eighteen years. In early 2010, however, the
Customs and Border Protection Agency
(CBP) deported Rojas for shoplifting,
separating him from his wife and children. When Border Patrol apprehended
him, Rojas signed papers agreeing to
return to Mexico. Agents subsequently
drove him to the San Ysidro Border
Crossing, but about twenty-five feet
from the gate, a conflict broke out.
Ten minutes later, Rojas was dead.
The San Diego coroner’s office found
that before dying of a heart attack, Rojas suffered “several loose teeth; bruising to his chest, stomach, hips, knees,
back, lips, head and eyelids; five broken ribs; and a damaged spine.” The
CBP insisted in a public statement that
public dialogue until PBS broadcast
the eyewitness video almost two years
later. Only after sixteen Congressmen
wrote a letter raising the issue in May
2012 did the Department of Justice
open a general investigation into Rojas’
death. To date, the CBP has not released
the names of the officials involved, nor
have prosecutors charged a single officer with a criminal or civil offense.
Immigration law is notoriously complex, but the Supreme Court has ruled
time and time again that non-citizens in
the United States retain certain Constitutional rights. However, legislative loopholes and poor oversight have allowed
the Border Patrol to operate in a Constitutional grey area. This legal ambiguity
results in Border Patrol agents routinely
violating the rights of citizens and noncitizens alike. The use of excessive force
has become routine. Moreover, CBP’s
current internal discipline system fails
to hold officers accountable. Pre ͥ