Wall Street Journal
By Alicia A. Caldwell
May 26, 2018
The shooting death of a woman by a U.S. Border Patrol agent near the Mexican border in Texas is renewing calls by immigration advocates for greater transparency in how such incidents are investigated.
The woman, identified by the Guatemalan government as Claudia Patricia Gómez González, 19 years old, of San Juan Ostuncalco, Guatemala, was shot Wednesday afternoon after a Border Patrol agent responded to a report of illegal activity in a culvert in Rio Bravo, Texas, and said he was rushed by a group of suspected illegal border crossers, the agency said in a statement Friday.
In an earlier statement, Border Patrol officials said an initial report indicated the agent fired after “he came under attack by multiple subjects using blunt objects.”
A nearby resident who posted a Facebook video of the aftermath of the shooting Wednesday said on the recording that Ms. Gómez had been shot in the head.
“You killed her! Why did you kill her?” the woman on the recording shouted to border agents, who didn’t appear to respond. The woman also told others in the area that the agent “shot her in the head because she was running.”
The U.S. Border Patrol didn’t comment beyond its statements.
The shooting comes amid President Donald Trump’s emphasis on stiffening security along the Mexican border, from his proposed border wall to his plan to deploy National Guard troops and hire more than 5,000 additional Border Patrol agents.
At the same time, arrests of people crossing the border illegally remain at lows last seen in the early 1970s. Since the start of the budget year in October, border agents have made about 211,000 arrests along the Mexican border. About 18,700 of those arrests were made in the Laredo Sector, which includes the scene of Wednesday’s deadly shooting.
Last month, a federal jury in Arizona acquitted a different border agent of second-degree murder in the 2012 shooting death of a teenager in Nogales, Mexico. Federal prosecutors have decided to retry the agent on lesser charges after the jury couldn’t reach a verdict.
The case against that border agent, Lonnie Swartz, is a rare prosecution of a border agent in a shooting incident, a record that immigration and civil-rights advocates have decried. Those groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the Southern Border Communities Coalition, renewed calls after this past week’s incident for greater oversight and transparency into Border Patrol investigations.
“While we do not have all the facts in this case, Border Patrol’s history of violence against immigrants requires us to scrutinize every incident involving lethal force closely,” said Astrid Dominguez, director of the ACLU’s Border Rights Center.
The Border Patrol has previously come under fire for its use-of-force policies and investigations into shooting incidents. During the Obama administration, the agency revamped its force policies, including new rules that call on agents to avoid putting themselves in situations where deadly force is necessary. The new rules also directed agents not to shoot at people throwing rocks unless they had a “reasonable belief” that the threat of serious injury or death was imminent.
Body-worn cameras have also been tested, though they aren’t currently in use.
From October through March, the Border Patrol, including agents along the Canadian border and in coastal sectors, reported 235 use-of-force instances, including nine times when agents fired a gun. During the 2017 budget year, agents fired guns 17 times, according to the agency.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which includes the Border Patrol, reported 366 assaults on its agents and officers, a 25% decrease from the same period in 2017.
As in previous shootings, the government has released few details of this past week’s incident. In an updated statement released Friday, the agency said the agent, identified only as a 15-year veteran, encountered a group of suspected illegal border crossers and ordered them to the ground but they “instead rushed him.” The agent fired one shot, the agency said, hitting Ms. Gómez.
An earlier statement described Ms. Gómez, who wasn’t identified by name or nationality, as an “assailant.”
Others in the group ran after the agent fired, and three people were later arrested. Two men are seen in the Facebook video being walked from what appears to be a vacant lot near the shooting scene.
The agent has been placed on paid administrative leave, a standard practice in the aftermath of a shooting.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Texas Rangers are investigating. An FBI spokeswoman said the agency wouldn’t have any further comment. The Texas Department of Public Safety, which includes the Texas Rangers, referred questions about the incident to the FBI.
The shooting happened on a small residential street that dead ends near the Rio Grande. Aerial images of the area show thick brush near the river and no fencing.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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