PHOENIX (AP) - Nearly two years after the shooting death of a Mexican teen in Nogales, Sonora, the boy’s family finally knows the name of the agent who shot him.
But the Border Patrol agreed to release the agent’s name to the family in a federal civil court case under the condition that it be kept under seal.
The agent shot 16-year-old Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez from the Arizona side of the border on Oct. 10, 2012. An autopsy showed Elena Rodriguez was hit by 10 bullets.
The Border Patrol has said Elena Rodriguez was among a group of people throwing rocks at agents across the border, endangering their lives. The ACLU, which has filed a lawsuit in federal court in Tucson on behalf of the teen’s mother, says the shooting was another example of border agents using excessive force without consequences. The organization has asked a judge to allow the agent’s name to be released publicly, citing a need for transparency when a federal agent takes someone’s life.
The boy’s mother, Araceli Rodriguez, opposes keeping the name under seal, according to court documents. The agreement releasing the agent’s name came after negotiations between the agency and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Mexico.
“This is an extraordinary request by the government and just one more example of how the Border Patrol attempts to shield its unlawful actions from the public. The rule of law demands transparency - that’s all we’re asking for,” Lee Gelernt, the lead ACLU attorney on the case, said.
Critics who believe agents are trigger-happy say the case was especially egregious. Elena Rodriguez’s family maintains that he was not involved in rock-throwing and was on his way home after playing basketball with friends at the park.
The agency has refused to provide any details about the shooting or the names of the agents involved. It says it does not comment on pending litigation. The FBI, which is investigating the shooting, also has not revealed any information.
But officials from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Arizona in late August visited the Nogales site where Elena Rodriguez was shot. Investigators took measurements and examined bullet holes in the border wall where he was killed, The Arizona Daily Star reported.
The ACLU has said it faces an uphill battle in its quest to hold the agent accountable in court because Elena Rodriguez was in Mexico when he was shot, and it’s likely the U.S. government will claim he did not have American constitutional rights.
However, a federal appeals court ruled in July that the U.S. Constitution protected another Mexican teenager killed by a border agent even though the teen was in Mexico when he was shot in June 2010. Sergio Adrian Hernandez Guereca was 15 when an agent who said he was attacked by rock-throwers shot the teen near a bridge between El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua. The Border Patrol is appealing the decision.
In the lawsuit in Tucson, the ACLU says that the border patrol has a “systematic” problem with use of force.
“Jose Antonio’s killing by U.S. Border Patrol agents is unfortunately not a unique event, but part of a larger problem of abuse by border patrol agents in Nogales and elsewhere,” the lawsuit says.
But Border Patrol union officials say rock-throwers pose a serious danger and can be deadly. Rock-throwers have attacked agents more than 1,700 times since 2010, according to the Border Patrol. Agents have used deadly force more than 40 times, resulting in 10 deaths, the Border Patrol says.
A report by the independent Police Executive Research Forum found some agents are suspected of intentionally placing themselves in the escape route of assailants and that some shootings of rock-throwers were questionable, especially when the rocks were coming from the Mexican side of the border.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.