Int’l Human Rights Body Rules on US Case of Migrant That Was Tortured, Killed

Practically 15 years after Anastasio Hernández Rojas’ spouse started pushing for justice in her husband’s killing, a world human rights fee discovered that U.S. border officers have been accountable for his dying — and that they tortured him earlier than he died.

Officers beat and shocked Hernández Rojas with a Taser whereas they have been deporting him to Mexico by way of the San Diego border in Could 2010. He was hospitalized and died a few days later.

That is the first time that the Inter-American Fee on Human Rights, a part of the Organization of American States of which the USA is a member, has made a ruling a couple of regulation enforcement killing on U.S. soil. In a call printed on Wednesday, the fee referred to as for reopening a prison investigation into the officers concerned in Hernández Rojas’ dying in addition to simply punishment for U.S. officers who it mentioned helped to cover up what occurred.

“I’m at peace, ready to see what the federal government does with what’s being ordered. What we would like is ‘Right here is the reality. That is what occurred,’” mentioned Hernández Rojas’ spouse, Maria Puga, in Spanish. “What’s left for me is to maintain supporting and maintain preventing for different households.”

The case includes the Trump administration’s pick for Customs and Border Safety commissioner, Rodney Scott, who was answerable for the San Diego Border Patrol Sector on the time of Hernández Rojas’ dying. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) discovered of the fee’s resolution throughout Scott’s affirmation listening to on Wednesday after questioning Scott about his actions on the time.

The U.S. State Division, which handles circumstances earlier than the fee, deferred to the Division of Homeland Safety when requested for remark. Homeland Safety and U.S. Customs and Border Safety didn’t reply to requests for remark.

The federal government had argued in 2022 that the fee didn’t have jurisdiction within the case as a result of the household had beforehand agreed to a $1 million settlement, however the fee rejected this reasoning.

Within the resolution launched Wednesday, the fee critiqued the discrimination that Hernández Rojas confronted from U.S. regulation enforcement as a Latino and as a migrant. The tribunal’s findings additionally condemned Customs and Border Safety’s use-of-force insurance policies and referred to as for main adjustments to convey these insurance policies in keeping with worldwide human rights pointers. Customs and Border Safety is the largest law enforcement agency within the U.S.

“This fee has expressed concern that a number of U.S. legal guidelines don’t require the usage of non-violent means earlier than resorting to the usage of drive, don’t present for the usage of deadly drive as a final resort, don’t require a warning to be given previous to the usage of deadly drive, or don’t clearly and objectively outline the conditions wherein the usage of deadly drive is permitted, thus leaving a large margin of discretion for interpretation by cops,” the choice mentioned.

Puga mentioned she hopes that the federal government implements the fee’s suggestions.

“In the event that they comply with by way of with that, there won’t be one other household affected like ours,” Puga mentioned.

Circumstances from different international locations determined by the fee have resulted in monuments being constructed to memorialize victims, formal apologies, reopening of criminal cases and changes in law and policy, amongst different outcomes. Together with the U.S., there are 34 member countries within the group.

The fee’s findings may set a precedent for different circumstances at the moment earlier than the fee involving U.S. police killings of Black folks, in keeping with Roxanna Altholz, director of the Human Rights Clinic on the College of California, Berkeley, College of Regulation and an lawyer who represents the household of Hernández Rojas. That features the excessive profile circumstances of Michael Brown Jr., whom police killed in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, and Sandra Bland, who died in police custody in Texas in 2015.

“In the USA, what we’ve heard again and again was these killings of 11-year-olds, killings of unarmed civilians, killings of people who find themselves begging for mercy as Anastasio was are perhaps the results of simply unhealthy apples, and what this case stands for very clearly is that is the results of a nasty system,” Altholz mentioned. “It’s the results of use-of-force legal guidelines that violate worldwide requirements and fail to guard civilian life. It’s the results of a justice system that has confirmed itself incapable of holding regulation enforcement brokers accountable.”

Although the fee doesn’t have a police or navy enforcement element, its choices act very like the consent decrees arrange between the U.S. Justice Division and native regulation enforcement businesses who’re discovered to have discriminatory practices, Altholz mentioned. The fee will now monitor the USA’ compliance and proceed to carry hearings to push the State Division for reforms.

“Sadly, the USA has joined international locations like Colombia and Argentina and Chile and Guatemala which have been condemned by the Inter-American Fee for committing life-and-limb crimes, life-and-limb human rights violations,” Altholz mentioned.

If the U.S. doesn’t comply, it may put into jeopardy the nation’s standing in policing human rights in different elements of the world, Altholz mentioned. Simply final 12 months, the U.S. Treasury Division sanctioned entities in a number of international locations, together with Iran, Nicaragua and Venezuela, for human rights violations.

For Andrea Guerrero, govt director of Alliance San Diego and one other lawyer on Hernández Rojas’ case, the choice affords hope in a second when many human rights advocates within the U.S. are struggling to see a method ahead.

“Why can we combat? As a result of generally we win,” Guerrero mentioned.

A Deportation and a Killing

The fee’s resolution detailed the information of the case as constructed by way of a evaluate of hundreds of pages of police records and other materials submitted by attorneys representing the household in addition to testimony from a hearing held in 2022.

Born in San Luis Potosí, Mexico, Hernández Rojas got here to San Diego when he was 15, in keeping with the fee’s doc. About six years later, Hernández Rojas met his spouse, and so they had 5 youngsters.

Days after he turned 42 in Could 2010, Hernández Rojas was arrested on suspicion of making an attempt to steal meals and drinks from a grocery store, the choice doc mentioned. He was deported about two weeks after he was booked into the county jail.

A few weeks later, Hernández Rojas tried to come back to his household and crossed the border together with his brother. They have been apprehended and brought to the Chula Vista Border Patrol Station in San Diego County.

Testimonies about what occurred there provide conflicting accounts.

In response to two brokers’ declarations, Hernández Rojas initially refused to throw away a bottle of water that he had with him. One of many brokers threw the water bottle within the trash and despatched him to an interview room. However in keeping with testimony from Hernández Rojas’ brother, as Hernández Rojas was emptying the water bottle into the trash, an agent bought offended and took the bottle from him, pushed him into the wall and kicked him within the foot earlier than sending him to the interview room.

An agent’s declaration confirmed that Hernández Rojas complained of ache in his ankle and requested for medical therapy. However the two brokers who have been with him within the interview room mentioned that they checked out his ankle and determined that he didn’t want therapy. One mentioned in his declaration that he believed that migrants steadily lied about medical wants.

The fee discovered that this denial of medical care was the primary of many violations of Hernández Rojas’ rights primarily based on discrimination towards him as a migrant.

The brokers determined to deport Hernández Rojas immediately and took him to the deportation gate on the San Ysidro Port of Entry, recognized within the company as “Whiskey-2,” the place they took off his handcuffs.

From there, the testimonies grew much more disparate.

Two brokers mentioned that Hernández Rojas went “loopy,” and one mentioned he pushed and grabbed at officers. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers who joined the scene mentioned that he punched at officers. Different officers mentioned they didn’t see him hit or assault anybody.

The ICE officers beat him with a metal baton, in keeping with the fee’s abstract of the information of the case, and a bunch of 4 officers knocked him down and handcuffed him face down on the bottom as extra officers joined them.

At this level, Hernández Rojas started asking for assist in Spanish. Over the course of the beating, his cries caught the eye of many who have been crossing again from Mexico by way of the port of entry.

Witnesses mentioned they noticed officers kneel on the again of Hernández Rojas’ neck and decrease again whereas others punched, kicked and stomped him.

Customs and Border Safety Officer Jerry Vales went as much as Hernández Rojas and informed him to cease resisting, in keeping with witness testimony. The witnesses noticed Vales kick him “like a soccer kick,” the choice report mentioned.

Vales didn’t reply to Capital & Essential’s makes an attempt to achieve him through social media accounts.

Vales then used his Taser at the least 4 instances on Hernández Rojas. The machine recorded two administrations at 5 seconds lengthy, a 3rd at 13 seconds and a fourth at 12 seconds. That last administration was in “drive stun” mode, with the Taser pressed on to Hernández Rojas chest, which brought on instant convulsions, the report mentioned.

Witnesses mentioned that Hernández Rojas’ physique went limp after he was shocked by the Taser and that officers continued to beat him.

The beating and deployment of the Taser, the fee discovered, amounted to torture.

“So you’ve gotten U.S. regulation enforcement personnel committing one of many worst crimes that we acknowledge as humanity, the act of torture,” Altholz mentioned. “It’s against the law that’s placed on equal stage by worldwide regulation as slavery.”

The fee discovered no argument to justify utilizing a Taser on Hernández Rojas whereas he was on the bottom together with his fingers cuffed behind his again and specifically condemned the usage of the machine in drive stun mode.

When the officers observed that Hernández Rojas now not had a pulse, they referred to as for medics. They mentioned the EMTs got here immediately, however the medical examiner’s report famous that resuscitation was delayed. Hernández Rojas was taken to Sharp Chula Vista Medical Heart, the place he was declared mind useless.

He died three days later.

A Cowl-Up

Within the moments after beating Hernández Rojas, border officers erased video from telephones and cameras that individuals crossing by way of the port of entry had used to file the officers’ actions.

The officers didn’t report the incident for greater than 4 hours, and the Border Patrol despatched its personal investigative group to the scene. Referred to as a critical incident team or essential incident investigation group, these items have since been accused of covering up evidence in multiple cases the place border officers could have used extreme drive, together with within the case of Hernández Rojas.

The San Diego Police Division, which ought to have been the regulation enforcement company accountable for an investigation, didn’t study what occurred till round midday the next day when a KPBS journalist referred to as to ask concerning the incident. That meant that the crime scene was not preserved or documented for greater than 15 hours.

San Diego police didn’t reply to a request for remark.

In the meantime, in keeping with declarations from three authorities whistleblowers submitted with the case, officers excessive up within the U.S. authorities began to try to spin the narrative.

“There are solely two situations the place, in my 40 years in regulation enforcement, I used to be ordered to falsify experiences,” James F. Tomsheck, assistant commissioner for Customs and Border Safety’s Workplace of Inner Affairs on the time of the killing, mentioned in a declaration.

A type of situations was within the case of Hernández Rojas, Tomsheck mentioned.

Jim Wong, who was Customs and Border Safety’s deputy assistant commissioner for inner affairs on the time of the killing and who additionally contributed a declaration within the case, mentioned the worldwide fee’s findings made him really feel validated, particularly on behalf of Tomsheck, who died last year.

“I actually haven’t any stake in it apart from the truth that there was an injustice accomplished, and if you happen to don’t try and proper what’s unsuitable, then you definately’re a part of what’s unsuitable,” Wong mentioned.

Primarily based on the data gathered initially from border officers, San Diego police issued a information launch referring to Hernández Rojas because the aggressor, and the early investigation characterised the border officers because the victims.

Police have been by no means in a position to acquire video footage of the scene from Customs and Border Safety as a result of officers initially despatched the unsuitable information after which the footage was recorded over, in keeping with the police report.

Border Patrol’s investigative group issued an administrative subpoena to acquire Hernández Rojas’ medical information from the hospital however didn’t present these paperwork to San Diego police. It additionally participated in witness interviews.

Brokers have been additionally current for the autopsy, the place a toxicology screening discovered traces of methamphetamine. (The presence of Border Patrol brokers through the post-mortem, in addition to brokers’ requests for blood samples on the hospital, has raised questions for Hernández Rojas’ household.)

In the end, the medical expert formally declared the case a murder however couldn’t say definitively how a lot the medicine may need contributed to his dying. A second post-mortem requested by the household concluded that it was the trauma from the beating that killed Hernández Rojas.

When requested concerning the case, the San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Workplace mentioned that it conducts “unbiased goal determinations for all deaths falling underneath its jurisdiction as a service to the general public.”

Practically two weeks after Hernández Rojas’ dying, the primary video of the beating that had escaped border officers’ makes an attempt to erase proof was aired on a tv information broadcast.

It was solely then that police started interviewing witnesses who have been passersby on the port of entry, and the narrative of what occurred started to shift from Hernández Rojas because the aggressor to Hernández Rojas because the sufferer.

Greater than a month after Hernández Rojas’ dying, San Diego police referred the case to the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace. That workplace declined to remark.

In 2012, a second video surfaced in an episode of PBS’ Must Know with a clearer picture of what officers did to Hernández Rojas.

“Nearly instantly, the FBI referred to as me after it was launched,” recalled Ashley Younger, who was in her early 20s on the time and spending a vacation weekend in San Diego with a good friend when she noticed what was taking place to Hernández Rojas and determined to movie it.

“I can’t spend a Memorial Day weekend with out serious about Anastasio and about what occurred and what I witnessed,” she added.

The Division of Justice later held grand jury proceedings. In 2015, greater than 5 years after the killing, the Division of Justice closed its investigation with out submitting any costs. In a news release, the division cited methamphetamine as a contributing think about Hernández Rojas’ dying.

The fee in its resolution pointed to the second post-mortem examiner’s discovering that Hernández Rojas was alive and calling for assist when officers beat him, suggesting that was what killed him quite than the presence of any medicine.

The proof and testimony from the grand jury proceedings have been by no means made public. The fee took subject with this as properly and referred to as on the U.S. to make grand jury proceedings extra clear and accessible to victims and their households.

“Impunity in such circumstances not solely facilitates its repetition however may additionally symbolize a type of social acceptance of those occasions that repeatedly gasoline the discrimination cycle in opposition to migrants,” the fee mentioned.

In search of Justice

Puga has by no means stopped demanding justice for her husband.

In 2016, attorneys filed a petition with the Inter-American Fee on Human Rights on behalf of the household. The household pushed in 2021 for San Diego prosecutors to reopen circumstances in opposition to the border officers concerned in Hernandez Rojas’ dying after studying concerning the extent of the cover-up by way of work on the case for the fee.

“Having true justice could be taking all of them to courtroom and to jail,” Puga mentioned.

The Mexican authorities has additionally adopted the case carefully. Final 12 months, on the 14th anniversary of Hernánde Rojas’ dying and the 100-year anniversary of the creation of the Border Patrol, Mexico issued a statement condemning the company’s use of drive on its residents.

The choice from the fee appears like a step in the best path, Puga mentioned.

It referred to as for full reparations for the household, together with psychological well being help, and reopening of the prison investigation. It mentioned state officers who participated within the killing or cover-up needs to be held accountable by way of administrative, disciplinary or penal measures.

It additionally emphasised the significance of correcting the USA’ official narrative to point out that Hernández Rojas was the sufferer within the encounter.

Lastly, it referred to as for measures to maintain related incidents from taking place once more, together with altering use-of-force requirements to match the worldwide pointers of obligatory and proportional quite than the USA’ authorized measure of affordable perception, which the fee referred to as “broad and unclear.” In these measures, it additionally mentioned the U.S. ought to prohibit the usage of Tasers in drive stun mode due to the hurt they’re recognized to trigger and supply extra coaching to cops on the usage of drive and human rights.

Although Puga mentioned she is aware of that the U.S. isn’t prone to adjust to the fee’s suggestions whereas President Donald Trump is in workplace, she stays hopeful that the nation will ultimately comply with by way of.

She mentioned that if Trump desires to go after criminals within the U.S., he ought to begin with border brokers.

After ready 15 years for justice, she mentioned she nonetheless has some combat left in her to maintain pushing.

“This was a case wherein the entire group and organizations have been supporting us,” Puga mentioned. “So this resolution is for all of us, however for my household it’s one thing — it’s a aid — greater than something, eventually the reality is being informed.”

She has been taking flowers to her husband’s grave at a hilly cemetery in San Diego each week or two for practically 15 years. She talks to him every day, typically holding up a tear-stained picture of him in her bed room.

After the attorneys got here to her residence to inform her concerning the fee’s resolution, she went to inform her husband the information.

“I informed him, ‘Sure, we may,’” she mentioned. “It’s not going to remain in impunity. I thanked him for giving me that bravery.”