An international human rights tribunal found U.S. immigration law enforcement responsible for the killing of an illegal migrant living in San Diego and the following cover-up almost 15 years after U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents brutally tased and assaulted him.
The United States should reopen a criminal investigation into the death of Anastasio Hernandez Rojas, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, an independent court within the Organization of American States, which comprises the United States and 34 other countries in the Americas. The commission also found that border agents had violated the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man.
According to the commission’s 43-page report, “the [United States] is responsible for the violation of the rights to life, personal integrity, health, justice, and humane treatment during the arrest.”
After relocating from Mexico to San Diego at the age of 15, Rojas established a family in California and worked in construction to provide for his wife and five kids. Early in May 2010, he was caught for stealing and sent to Mexico. Rojas was caught and imprisoned by authorities later that month after he and his brother had returned to the United States.
Officers denied Rojas medical care for an ankle injury while he was being held, which some said was because other inmates had “falsely exaggerated” their injuries to slow down the procedure.
The committee concluded, “This commission is concerned that State agents deny access to medical care to migrants deprived of their freedom based on stereotypes or preconceptions.”
Rojas was tased and beaten by immigration officials while he was being held, and onlookers captured the event on their cell phones. According to the commission, video evidence showed Rojas in the fetal position on the ground while being repeatedly stomped, kicked, and punched, and witnesses said that Rojas made no attempt to hurt the cops. Rojas was also tased four times by an officer, and following the final discharge, his body fell limp.
After being taken to a hospital, he was pronounced brain dead and passed away the next day.
The panel discovered evidence that the beating was not an accident and that up to seven police officers participated in it simultaneously.
“The existence of intentional acts is reinforced if we bear in mind that, as was demonstrated in the context section, a pattern of discrimination against migrants of Latin American origin has been identified in the United States of America. This pattern has manifested as excessive violence, excessive use of force, and the application of life-threatening tactics by police officers, such as positional asphyxiation and the use of electric shock devices,”
the commission wrote.
The panel concluded that the violence against Rojas was torture when considered as a totality. It also claimed that the United States’ laws and practices on the use of force by law enforcement did not protect the right to life. Although the United States claimed to have carried out a comprehensive investigation into Rojas’ murder and came to the conclusion that he had defied instructions and attacked border security officers, the committee came to a different conclusion.
The inquiry was headed by the Critical Incident Inquiry Team of the U.S. Border Patrol. The head of the U.S. Border Patrol office in San Diego at the time was Rodney Scott, who was nominated by President Donald Trump to head U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
“Some depositions allege that police officers confiscated and destroyed the recordings of witnesses to the assaults against [Rojas],”
the court wrote in its ruling on whether the United States had violated the right to seek justice. Despite the available evidence, the committee pointed out that the investigations were carried out assuming Rojas was the criminal.
The commission stated that such acts are victimizing and represent prejudices and preconceptions that affect the criminal investigation’s course into alleged serious offenses.
Additionally, investigators didn’t reach the crime site until 16 hours after it happened, and they didn’t finish until 2015. The United States contended that the family’s claims ought to be dismissed due to their prior settlement agreement, which it said renounced all claims and offered a remedy. When the International Human Rights Clinic of the University of California and Alliance San Diego petitioned the commission on behalf of Rojas and his family in 2016, the commission pointed out that the civil action, which had been launched in 2011, was still far from being decided.
The state has not supplied the procedural actions taken by the judicial authorities — distinct from those that have already been developed previously — that could demonstrate diligence by the appropriate authorities, the commission wrote, adding that there is no element that links the delay to the plaintiff’s actions.
In addition to providing mental health care services for Rojas’ family, the commission directed the United States to reopen the criminal investigation, “grant full and exemplary reparation for the violations of rights declared in this report,” rewrite the story to show Roja was the aggressor rather than the victim, and put policies in place to prevent a repeat of this kind of incident.