Border Patrol Incidents Result in Various Deaths and Little Resolution
Over the last couple of years the issues revolving the U.S. Border have not necessarily been about people crossing it, but instead about a series of incidents that have resulted in 19 deaths and three never-ending pending investigations by the U.S. government.
According to The Los Angeles Times, in a review completed last month, there have been 67 shooting incidents at the border with the majority of them absolving border patrol agents of any misconduct.
The three cases with current investigations by the Justice Department are all from 2012. In spite of an ongoing investigation, all three agents are still serving as guards on the border.
Along with these three there have been several incidents that lead to unarmed individuals being killed. In 2010, a 15-year-old Mexican boy was killed by a shot to the face when he threw rocks at an agent at a border bridge in El Paso.
In 2011, a U.S. Border Patrol agent shot a 17-year-old Mexican man after he threw rocks from the other side of the border. That same year, another agent killed a 19-year-old American trying to cross into Mexico. The agent responsible, along with those in the previous two cases, has been cleared of any criminal wrongdoing.
"We are deeply disappointed" with the lack of action, said Juanita Molina, executive director of Border Action Network, a human rights organization based in Tucson. "When you have someone throwing rocks and someone responding with lethal force, it is just not proportional."
With all of these deaths and the struggle to easily file complaints, the lack of public trust in the Border Patrol has increased. The discovery of various gaps, such as a lack of witnesses, in some of the 63 resolved cases by an FBI agent have also added to increasing concerns.
The new head of Internal Affairs, Matthew Klein, called for "faster resolution" of these incidents and promised to bring up the three pending investigations with lawyers.
All three pending cases included unarmed men who were shot and killed from across the border, with two of them shot repeatedly. Criminal charges are possible in all three cases.
The border patrol in Tucson currently is also embroiled in a court case concerning the mistreatment of undocumented immigrants. The lawsuit claims they are kept in "inhumane" conditions.
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