Michael Pizzi: Report on Border Patrol Shootings Sheds Light, But Not Enough Michael Pizzi - Al Jazeera
go to original September 20, 2013

Crossing the line at the border: Preview (PBSNeedtoKnow)

Anastacio Hernandez Rojas, a 42-year-old Mexican national who had been living illegally in San Diego, was apprehended for being undocumented and transported to the U.S.-Mexico border for deportation in June 2010. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers said that shortly before being released into Mexico, Hernandez Rojas became “combative," and that use of force was deemed necessary to subdue him and “maintain officer safety.”

Over the course of a 20-minute altercation, CBP officers beat and tased Hernandez Rojas, who died three days later in the hospital. The county medical examiner determined that Hernandez Rojas had died of a heart attack, brought on in part by the prolonged struggle with officers.

Despite outrage from a few immigration activists, the incident went relatively unnoticed at the time. Hernandez Rojas seemed destined to become just another victim in a string of fatal encounters between border guards and undocumented Mexican immigrants trying to sneak into the United States.

But two years later, a PBS documentary, "Crossing the line at the border," released eyewitness footage depicting multiple border patrol agents tasing Hernandez Rojas, who the eyewitness says was handcuffed and horizontal on the ground. His desperate cries for help recorded in the video sparked a national outcry and a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) inquiry into excessive use of force by CBP employees.

Read the rest at Al Jazeera

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