Mother of killed Mexican teen sues U.S. Border Patrol

Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez’s family speak to reporters on Tuesday about the lawsuit filed against Border Patrol over the killing of the Mexican teen. (Twitter/@ACLUaz)

The lawsuit, Rodriguez v. John Does, claims that in killing Jose Antonio, Border Patrol agents “acted intentionally and used unreasonable and excessive force with the purpose of causing harm to Jose Antonio without legal justification.” The complaint states that the agents’ actions violated Jose Antonio’s Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights.
SEE ALSO: Congressmen introduce bill to hold border agents accountable

Rodriguez is also demanding a jury trial and is seeking damages, including punitive damages, against the agents involved in the killing of her son.

“The U.S. border patrol agents who killed my son in a senseless act of violence are still out there and they need to be brought to justice,” Rodriguez, who lives in Nogales, Mexico, said in a statement. “The U.S. government has not held the agents who shot my son accountable and that is why I am bringing this lawsuit.”

In a statement to VOXXI, a U.S. Custom and Border Protection official said the agency could not comment on pending litigation.

Jose Antonio shot 10 times by Border Patrol

The night that Rodriguez’s son was killed, Border Patrol agents were chasing two Mexican drug smugglers on foot along the southern border fence in Nogales, Ariz.
According to Border Patrol, the agents saw two people abandon a load of narcotics on the U.S. side of the border before running back to Mexico. Border Patrol said the agents tried going after the two individuals and began firing when they ignored orders to stop throwing rocks.
The lawsuit claims that Jose Antonio “was doing nothing but peacefully walking down the street by himself when he was gunned down” by the agents. An autopsy report shows the teenager was fatally shot 10 times, with virtually all of the bullets entering his body from behind. Moments after the shooting, Jose Antonio was found dead on sidewalk, in a pool of blood, about four blocks from his home.

“He was not committing a crime, nor was he throwing rocks, using a weapon, or in any way threatening U.S. Border Patrol agents or anyone else,” the lawsuit claims.

SEE ALSO: Abuse complaints against Border Patrol rarely lead to discipline
Furthermore, the lawsuit alleges that the Border Patrol agents did not issue any verbal warnings before opening fire, therefore, violating Border Patrol guidelines that require agents to issue a verbal warning, if feasible, before using deadly force. 
Lee Gelernt, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union Immigrants’ Rights Project who is representing Rodriguez in the lawsuit, said in a statement that Jose Antonio’s death is “unfortunately not unique.” He stated that on multiple occasions, Border Patrol has been known to use “excessive and unnecessary force against people on both sides of the border.”
“Agents continue to violate the Constitution with impunity,” Gelernt said.
According to the ACLU, at least 27 people have died since 2010 as a result of use of force by border agents.

CBP’s use of deadly force is questioned

Earlier this year, the Police Executive Research Forum conducted a review of U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s use-of-force practices. The review analyzed all CBP use-of-deadly-force cases from January 2010 through October 2012.
On cases involving rock throwers, the forum concluded that agents sometimes “put themselves in harm’s way by remaining in close proximity to the rock throwers when moving out of range was a reasonable option.”

“Too many cases do not appear to meet the test of objective reasonableness with regard to the use of deadly force,” the forum added. “In cases where clear options to the use of deadly force exist and are not utilized in rock-throwing incidents, corrective actions should be taken.”

In addition, the forum stated that the “more questionable cases generally involved shootings that took place through the IBF [International Border Fence] at subjects who were throwing rocks at agents from Mexico.”
SEE ALSO: Border Patrol makes changes to its use of force policy
Luis Parra, an attorney for Jose Antonio’s family based in Nogales, Ariz., said he hopes the lawsuit will serve to find justice for Jose Antonio and to identify the agents who shot the 16-year-old.
“What happened to Jose Antonio should never be allowed to happen again,” Parra said in a statement. “We hope this suit will serve as a warning to agents that they will be held accountable for their actions in cross border shootings.”

The GOP lust for Latinos picks up steam

Ronald Reagan once said that Latinos were Republicans. They just didn’t know it yet.
Never before has the GOP hoped those words were truer than in the upcoming fall elections leading into the 2016 American electoral marathon better known as the presidential campaign.
It is not new that many, including some conservative Republicans, believe that Latinos hold the fate of upcoming political elections in their hands.
What is new, though, is just how diligent and undeterred the GOP has been in quietly wooing the traditionally loyal Hispanics, trying to help them discover that, as the party patron saint Ronald Reagan said, they are Republicans and just haven’t realized it.
SEE ALSO: Immigration hardliner seeks Latino vote in Texas lt. governor race
In recent months, the GOP has been spending $10 million in improving its Hispanic field operations in key states and flooding the air with Spanish-language advertisements.
The Republican National Committee has also launched “Hispanic engagement field teams” in nine states, with two dozen paid staff members on the ground reaching out to Latinos.

“The message we are going to give Latinos is about jobs, about education and about Obamacare,” says the GOP’s Rosario Marin, the California political operative who was U.S. treasurer under George W. Bush.

Marin, now a RNC advisory board member, insists that the national debate on immigration has not hurt Republicans, pointing to Chris Christie carrying 51 percent of the Hispanic vote in his gubernatorial reelection triumph last year in New Jersey, and the GOP’s David Jolly winning a special congressional election in Florida.
In fact, a Pew Hispanic Center survey agreed that immigration is not the most important issue to Latinos, ranking behind education, the economy and health care.
Marin and others maintain that the anti-Republican sentiment over the congressional impasse is exaggerated and offset by President Obama’s struggles with the immigrant community over deportations.
SEE ALSO: One year after autopsy report: Has the GOP made progress?
The GOP is also drawing encouragement from a recent Gallup poll in Texas in which more Latinos identified themselves as Republican than in the country as a whole.
Democrats hold a 30 percent advantage among Latinos over Republicans nationally, but that difference is only 19 percent in Texas, where Democrats had hoped to make inroads into the GOP’s two-decade stranglehold on the Lone Star State in this mid-term election.
One of those Texas Latinos who may go Republican this fall is James Duarte, a retired state employee and lifelong Democrat who says he can’t see himself voting for gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis – paradoxically over the issue that made her the state’s Democratic Party darling.

“I can’t get behind a candidate whose chief claim is being pro-abortion,” Duarte, an American G.I. Forum leader among Latino veterans, says of Davis, who skyrocketed to national fame last year because of a legislative filibuster opposing an abortion bill.

But Duarte’s disenchantment goes even deeper. Asked if he would be more enthusiastic over a Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, he shook his head.
“I don’t see myself being any more interested in a Hillary Clinton campaign,” he said.
“I think I have just lost faith in the Democrats asking us to vote for them but not having one of us as the candidate at the top of the ticket.

“I’m waiting to see if the Republicans actually go that far. If they do. If they put someone like (Florida Senator Marco) Rubio on their national ticket, well, we’re talking a whole new ball game.”
How Republicans have been able to make those kinds of inroads with Latinos in Texas is unimaginable, given some of the headline-grabbing anti-immigrant rhetoric that has come to be associated with the GOP.
But Republicans say they have been reaching out to Latinos by distancing the mainstream GOP from the extremists and the inflammatory language.
“I understand the need to address the issue of illegal immigration, and I understand the need to secure borders, and I realize that’s critically important,” says Hector De Leon, a leader of the Associated Republicans of Texas, a Hispanic GOP group dating back to 1974.
SEE ALSO: Eva Longoria’s group looks to help Latinos build political power
“But by the same token, that issue can be addressed by not engaging in rhetoric that sounds like thinly veiled racism.”
It was in 1983, as he prepared for re-election, that President Ronald Reagan made his comment about Latinos not realizing they were Republicans.
He said it to San Antonio advertising guru Lionel Sosa, who as a political consultant would help Reagan secure a then record share of the Latino vote as he won re-election.
“When I say that Latinos share conservative values, when Ronald Reagan said that, we mean the love of family, the love of country, a commitment to personal responsibility, to hard work,” says Sosa.
“Convey those things and you will have a lot of Latinos who nod their heads and say, ‘Yes, yes, we do think alike.’ But from there, the Latino vote has to be earned just like any other.”

Immigration reform can happen if we do the doable

By Vivek Wadhwa Special to The Washington Post

There are debates about whether comprehensive immigration reform is dead because of the defeat of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., in the primaries. The fact is that it never had any hope.
Americans are deeply divided on whether people who entered the country unlawfully should be allowed to become citizens and enjoy the same rights as those who were born here or migrated legally. The insistence by the Democrats on mandating a path to citizenship for the undocumented has turned the legislation into a poison pill that the Republicans will not swallow.
True, the Senate’s bill created only a narrow and treacherous path to citizenship. But it allowed opponents of immigration reform to claim that it was an amnesty.
A survey of registered Republicans conducted by FWD.us from May 17-23 revealed that Americans overwhelmingly believe that the immigration system is broken and that Congress should take immediate action to fix it, with Republicans being most convinced that immediate action is necessary. As well, the majority of Americans support of some kind of legalization for undocumented immigrants — they don’t believe that they can or should be deported.
But there is a strong countervailing sentiment that undocumented immigrants should not be granted amnesty. The debates over citizenship pushed many Americans who would otherwise support some form of legalization for the undocumented, over the edge.
Comprehensive immigration reform may well be dead; immigration reform need not be. Our political leaders need to package up small pieces of legislation that are acceptable to the majority of Americans and allow both sides of the political spectrum to declare victory.
One way of resolving the issue of the undocumented workers, for example, is to immediately provide them with temporary visas that allow them to work in the United States, pay taxes and return home to visit their relatives.
They need these rights more than they need the right to vote — which is what the Democrats have been insisting on. Note that from the last immigration-reform measure in 1986 — which provided amnesty to the undocumented — only 40 percent who qualified became U.S citizens. In other words, the majority chose not to take the path to citizenship that is creating the toxic debates, and we can meet the major concerns of all sides by setting the subject of citizenship aside in favor of addressing the needs of the people we are trying to help.
Most Americans would also support providing basic human rights — and citizenship — to the 1.8 million children whose undocumented parents brought them to this country to give them a better future. 
On the skilled-immigration front, there are also many points of agreement — such as on a startup visa, which would allow foreign entrepreneurs to set up shop in the United States — to boost innovation and to create jobs. By the Kauffman Foundation’s estimate, this visa would create as many as 1.6 million jobs and boost the nation’s annual gross domestic product by 1.6 percent within 10 years.
An increase in the number of permanent-resident visas for foreign doctors, scientists and engineers would also receive broad support. 
Broad consensus could also be achieved on providing temporary work visas for unskilled workers in non-farm jobs, such as in hospitality, food processing, construction, cleaning and maintenance.  Programs such as this could be expanded in good economic times and shrunk in bad times.
Unnecessary battles over immigration have stymied the United States for too long. The country is bleeding competitiveness, and people are needlessly suffering, merely because we have lacked the imagination to see that immigration reform is not all or nothing. Let’s start by doing the things that we agree on and give the nation a victory.

Jeh Johnson warns ‘it is not safe’ for kids to cross the border alone

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said Thursday the government is doing its best to provide humanitarian aid to unaccompanied minors caught trying to cross the border to come to the United States. But he also warned that it’s dangerous for children to cross the border without a parent or guardian.

“Yes, we provide a number of things for children when we find them because the law requires it and because our values require it,” Johnson said at a press conference Thursday. “But it is not safe. It is not a desirable situation, and I would encourage no parent to send their child or send for their child through this process

Johnson also warned that processing centers “are no place for children” and that putting children “in the hands of a criminal smuggling organization is not safe.”
Johnson’s remarks come as the Obama administration deals with an influx of unaccompanied minors crossing the Southern border to come to the U.S. So far this fiscal year, about 47,000 unaccompanied minors have been apprehended at the border, nearly doubling last year’s numbers.
As many as 90,000 unaccompanied minors are predicted to be caught trying to cross the border this year. That number surpasses a previous estimate of 60,000.

What’s driving more unaccompanied minors to come to the U.S.

Some critics of President Barack Obama have said the surge of unaccompanied minors trying to come to the U.S. is occurring as a result of the Obama administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
The federal program has given two-year work permits and deportation relief to more than 600,000 undocumented young immigrants who came to the U.S. as children. Critics have said that the DACA program is stoking rumors that children who come to the U.S. will qualify for the federal program and won’t be deported.

Shelters, such as this one run by Southwest Key Program in Texas, provide unaccompanied minors with a free education. (AP Photo/J.R. Hernandez)

Others have also said the federal government’s treatment of children caught trying to cross the border without a parent or guardian is also encouraging more children to come. Unaccompanied minors are currently being housed in crowded facilities where they’re provided housing, food and medical screenings.
Johnson responded to those claims on Thursday. He said the federal government is not incentivizing families to send their children to the U.S. He also said unaccompanied minors who cross the border won’t qualify for the DACA program since it only benefits undocumented youth who entered the U.S. by June 15, 2007.

“Those who cross into this country — even children — today, yesterday or tomorrow are not eligible for DACA treatment,” he said. “Likewise, the comprehensive immigration reform being considered by Congress right now — the earned path to citizenship component of that — is for those who’ve been in this country since December 31, 2011.”

Johnson added that to help make those points clear, DHS has reinitiated a pubic affairs campaign that will publicize radio, print and television ads in Spanish and English in countries where most unaccompanied children are coming from. The ads will also point out the dangers of sending children across the border alone and putting them into the hands of human smugglers.
Most unaccompanied children caught trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border are from Central American countries, including Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. Many of them are fleeing violence and poor economic conditions in their native countries, while some of them are attempting to reunite with parents or family members in the U.S.

More unaccompanied minors coming to the U.S. than expected

Mark Greenberg, acting assistant secretary for the Administration for Children and Families under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), joined Johnson at Thursday’s press conference.
He said HHS had been “steadily” preparing for the increased numbers of unaccompanied minors crossing the border but that the recent numbers surpass what they expected.

“What has happened in this most recent period is that the numbers, particularly since the beginning of May, have grown at a pace beyond what we had predicted and beyond what the Department of Homeland Security had predicted,” he said. “And that’s what has caused this most recent set of challenges.” 

Those challenges include having overcrowded facilities in Texas that can no longer hold more unaccompanied minors. As a temporary solution, the Obama administration has set up processing facilities in several states to house unaccompanied children.
One of those centers is in Nogales, Ariz., where newly released photos show unaccompanied children sleeping on the floor inside a warehouse. The photos, released Sunday by a Tucson radio show called The Jon Justice Show, raised humanitarian concerns.
In a letter sent to the White House on Monday, Rep. Raul Grijalva said he was concerned about the conditions children are facing in the Nogales facility. Grijalva wrote in the letter:

“I understand resources are strained and immediate actions need to be taken. However, according to reports, this facility is not in a suitable condition to hold the unaccompanied children.”

NBC News reported this week that U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials are improving conditions at the facility in Nogales by adding new staff members and more beds.
Other facilities have opened up in Texas and California. Another facility is scheduled to open in Oklahoma on Friday.

Zoning rules could slow planned Tucson shelter for immigrant kids

By Perla Trevizo

The federal government plans to open a shelter in Tucson to accommodate the influx of unaccompanied minors crossing the border, according to a…

The federal government plans to open a shelter in Tucson for unaccompanied migrant children crossing the border alone, but officials would have to seek zoning exemptions on the two locations being considered.
And that process could take months.
Southwest Key is seeking to turn a studio/apartment complex on North Oracle Road, north of downtown, or a southeast Tucson hotel into a shelter for children who are crossing the border illegally without parents or legal guardians, city and county documents show.
Last week, the city of Tucson gave the Austin, Texas-based nonprofit the permit to start interior renovations. But Tucson City Councilman Steve Kozachik, who represents Ward 6, said the certificate of occupancy will be denied because it’s within 500 feet of a residential area.
The group can seek an exemption with the zoning examiner, but he said, that would take several months. That’s time federal government doesn’t have.
Part of the issue is that the exemption requires a 30-day notice to residents of the surrounding neighborhood so they can voice their opinion. If the exemption is denied, Southwest Key can appeal.
City officials would not comment on Tuesday. However, they confirmed officials from the city’s planning and development services department met with Southwest Key representatives on Tuesday.
Pima County officials have said the organization would also have to go to the Board of Supervisors for a “modification of a rezoning condition” because the hotel had been previously approved for an assisted-living facility.
Southwest Key spokeswoman Cindy Casares referred questions to the Administration for Children and Families’ Office, which didn’t return a request for comment Tuesday.
The federal government is scrambling to deal with a surge of children and youth crossing the border illegally, mainly through South Texas, which is expected to climb to 90,000 this year.
Last week, Customs and Border Protection started flying more than 1,000 children to Arizona for processing before being transferred to shelters in other parts of the country — a move that was expected to continue.
The agency is housing them in an old processing center at the Nogales Border Patrol stations that used to be a warehouse and not designed to hold children, especially for prolonged periods. Some are as young as 4, consular officials have said. There are also some teen mothers with their babies being held there.
Consular officials have said conditions are improving, with the agency bringing in televisions, showers, laundry machines and other amenities. The media have not been allowed inside the facility.
The Nogales International reported Monday that Nogales medical service providers and emergency crews have taken three youths from the Border Patrol station to Carondelet Holy Cross Hospital.
One of the youths was a 17-year-old girl who was 32 weeks pregnant when she was taken to the hospital last Thursday after complaining of labor pains. The following day, paramedics brought a 16-year-old male to the hospital for treatment of an “active cough,” and an 18-year-old man was hospitalized with seizures on Sunday, the newspaper reported. The teen suffering seizures had been off his medication for as many as 15 days.
CBP normally has to transfer the children within 72 hours to a division of the Administration for Children and Families’ Office, which takes custody of them while they are reunited with parents or relatives in the United States to continue their immigration proceedings.
But there’s no bed space because of the large numbers apprehended so far this year —more than 47,000.
The Defense Department has made military bases in San Antonio, Texas; Ventura County, California; and Fort Sill, Oklahoma, available to temporarily house some of the minors.
Kozachik said he wonders why officials haven’t made the bases in Arizona available. “There are options on the table we aren’t exercising and we should be doing so proactively,” he said.
The number of minors coming north without parents is not new. In the early 2000s, authorities apprehended between 35,000 and 40,000 a year, but most of them were from Mexico, and in most cases they were deported quickly and reunited with relatives there.
Three out of four unaccompanied children apprehended this year have come from Central America and are increasingly younger. The average age is 14.
“What brought the focus and attention right now is that the system that is designed to take care of these children has imploded,” said Wendy Young, executive director of Kids in Need of Defense, during a conference call with reporters. “There is no bed space available for them.”

Alerta

Illegal immigrant sheltered at church gets deportation stay

Daniel Neyoy Ruiz, right, his wife, Karla Neyoy, left, and volunteer Kat Sinclair, who has been living with the family in the sanctuary nearly every day at Southside Presbyterian Church, embrace after Neyoy Ruiz was given a stay in his deportation case.

An undocumented immigrant who has been living in sanctuary with his wife and son at Southside Presbyterian Church since May 13 has received a stay in his deportation case.

Even as he enjoyed lunch at a nearby restaurant Monday, Daniel Neyoy Ruiz said he couldn’t believe he could now safely leave the church grounds and return home.

“I still don’t believe it, but I’ve got the paper here to prove it,” he said, reaching for his pocket.

The document, a stay of deportation, means the government has agreed to not enforce the order of removal for one year. In the meantime, Neyoy Ruiz can obtain a work permit and later apply to renew the stay.

Attorney Margo Cowan said she received word midafternoon that Immigration and Customs Enforcement had approved her client’s petition. She rushed to the church to share the news.

“When she told me, I just began to cry,” Neyoy Ruiz said. “We were all crying there at the church. I’m very happy to be free again and be able to continue living my life.”

Cowan said that while she is pleased with the outcome in this case, Neyoy Ruiz represents the thousands of illegal immigrants who are in the United States without legal status.

“This really is a historic moment, and we call on the administration to stop issuing these final orders of removal for people who have earned the right to stay here,” she said.
Neyoy Ruiz and his wife, Karla, came to the U.S. in 2000 and have an American-born son who is 13.
His deportation case began in 2011 after he was stopped on Interstate 19 by a state Department of Public Safety officer because his car’s exhaust was emitting smoke. Immigration officials were called after he could not show he was in the country legally.
Neyoy Ruiz was granted sanctuary by Southside Presbyterian, the birthplace of the sanctuary movement in the early 1980s, after ICE initially declined to close his case or grant him a stay of deportation.
In a statement, ICE said that after conducting a further review, it had granted Neyoy-Ruiz a one-year stay of removal and would re-evaluate the case to determine next steps at the end of that period.
Cowan said it was a combination of voices that finally made the government reconsider. She said people had sent hundreds of emails and letters to government officials, and that Bishop Gerald Kicanas, leader of the Tucson Catholic Diocese, as well as U.S. Reps. Raúl Grijalva and Ron Barber had supported their cause.
Although Karla Neyoy was thankful her family’s ordeal was over, she said their time at Southside Presbyterian not only kept them together, it made her family stronger — and larger.
“We value our family much more now, what we’re willing to do for each other,” she said. “And in these 26 days we have found new sisters, friends, aunts and mothers here. We have formed a new family with them.”