Photo: Scott Eisen / Getty Images
By: EFE
Wednesday, October 9
Border Patrol officers fear the body cameras they will have to use
Art Del Cueto , Vice President of the National Union of the Border Patrol , said he feared that the use of body cameras could unleash a “witch hunt” against border agents.
“I’m afraid these cameras are going to create the ‘I caught you’ moment that the media so much seeks” , said Del Cueto during his most recent podcast The Greenline.
The leader said he hopes these cameras will be used as part of agent training or for obtain evidence against those who violate the laws migratory or against drug traffickers.
Del Cueto is not convinced that a video showing only One aspect of a situation may be sufficient to qualify an agent’s actions in a life or death case.
The Customs Office and Border Protection (CBP) recently announced that it will equip border agents with body cameras. The agency expects to distribute approximately 6. 000 cameras to late this year among its agents along the border with Mexico.
“This is something CBP should have done 20 years; It is something extremely necessary ”, Isabel García, director of the Arizona Human Rights Coalition, told Efe today.
García considers that the use of body cameras by border agents is a first step, but she is convinced that other measures must be taken.
“ The Border Patrol (which depends on CBP) is the most brutal agency that exists in this country. The agents act with impunity, ”the activist stressed.
In your opinion, one of the fundamental problems of the Border Patrol is the sentiment racist and anti-immigrant living within their ranks, as well as policies designed exclusively to protect their agents.
He explained that when a case of deadly force is presented, the agent does not speak with any local law enforcement agency. The one who talks first with his superiors.
Another fault, the activist considers, is that the Border Patrol itself is the body that investigates the complaints of abuse of power against their agents.
“Undoubtedly the use of cameras will give us a better idea of how agents are handled and what that really happens in cases where an immigrant loses his life, ”he said.
Such was the case that occurred on August 2 when CBP reported the death of a Salvadoran migrant near Eagle Pass, Texas .
According to the federal agency, the migrant, who was part of a group, was handcuffed along with two other migrants. However, the man resisted the arrest and tried to flee.
The officers detained him again, but after spending more than an hour in handcuffs and being transported to a point where the migrants would be sent to a processing center, the Salvadoran was discovered unconscious.
Despite the efforts of the paramedics, the migrant died in the same place