Photo: John Moore / Getty Images
For: EFE Updated 03 May 2022, 17: 14 pm EDT
Relatives of people who have lost their lives at the hands of border agents denounced this Tuesday a pattern of “manipulation” of evidence by members of the Border Patrol in cases of use of deadly force.
“It is not fair that Border Patrol agents always manipulate evidence in their favor and thus manipulate justice,” said María Puga, whose husband died after being beaten by border agents in May of 2010.
An investigation that highlights what #Mexico has always complained to DHS: impunity and cover-up for the murder of Anastasio Hernández Rojas and Sergio Hernández Guereca. Via @sdut
👇🏽 https://t.co/d2M2eZdEVU
— Arturo Sarukhan (@Arturo_Sarukhan) October 28, 2012
During a virtual press conference organized by the Southern Border Communities Coalition (SBCC), Puga assured that in the case of his husband, Anastasio Hernández Rojas, the Border Patrol manipulated the testimonies of witnesses.
In addition, “they changed blood samples, they changed the police report, they deleted videos,” he assured.
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Hernández Rojas arrived at the Port of Entry at the San Ysidro Port of Entry in California to ask for help. However, according to his family, he was beaten by border agents and electrocuted with a stun gun.
The agents defended themselves by assuring that the Mexican immigrant beat one of them.
Another case mentioned is that of Valeria Tachiquin Alvarado, who died in San Diego, California, in 2012 after a border agent shot at his car.
The agents arrived at an apartment where Tachiquin was looking for another person. The immigrant got scared and tried to leave in her car, but received 14 bullet wounds.
According to the coalition, the Border Patrol participated directly in the interrogations of witnesses, and were present at the autopsy performed on the woman’s body.
These same accusations were made by Taide Elena, grandmother of José Antonio Elena Rodríguez, a young Mexican who died in 2012 when a border agent fired his weapon through the border fence, hitting the young man who was on the Mexican side.
In this case, the agent faced trial but was acquitted.
“We demand that my grandson’s case be re-investigated. In his trial, many lies were told and evidence was manipulated”, warned Elena at the conference.
For her part, Vicki Gaubeca, director of the SBCC, explained that six months ago they sent a letter to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) denouncing “the existence for decades of these cover-up units” known officially as Border Patrol Critical Incident Teams (BPCIT).
“We are asking that these units disappear and that another agency investigate these cases”, said Gaubeca.
The director of SBCC He added that the activists hope to have a hearing before a congressional committee where they can expose these cases. Also, at the end of this week they will meet with the new Customs and Border Protection (CBP) commissioner, Chris Magnus, with whom they will talk about these cases.
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