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¡No tasermé, cuate!

31 May 2010

SAN YSIDRO — A 32-year-old Mexican man was in critical condition Saturday and not expected to live after an altercation with federal border officers at the San Ysidro Port of Entry Friday.

The man was in the process of being deported, San Diego police said Saturday.

Homicide detectives are investigating the incident involving U.S. Border Patrol and U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents. Police said the man stopped breathing after a CBP officer used a Taser to subdue him.

(Lionel Sanchez, San Diego Union-Tribune)

Maggie Drake (“Maggie’s Madness”) picked up on this Saturday, quoting Mexican newspapers which had more details than the Sunday article in the San Diego paper. From what Maggie found in El Mexicano and AFN-Tijuana, it appears that 35-year old Anastasio Hernández Rojas was in the process of being deported and was severely beaten before being tasered.  And the “critical condition” mentioned in the San Diego paper is “brain death”… which is pretty damned critical.

The Union-Tribune report mentions an “unnamed witness”, but the Mexican reports suggest that there are several witnesses, and possibly a video of this incident, which means … of course… the Mexican consulate is going to insist be investigated, and the Border Patrol is going to try to minimize and… I’ll be getting comments from the people who bring up  illegal attacks on Guatemalan migrants in Mexico  as if it’s relevant to a death in legal custody for a regulatory offense in the United States.

2 Comments leave one →
  1. Tio Foncho's avatar
    Tio Foncho permalink
    31 May 2010 5:12 pm

    You should actually read the news, instead of repeating what is told. That part about the brain-dead guy being beaten prior to the later incident is attributed to a statement from his relative who was not present and who has no actual knowledge of the facts. Furthermore, the legitimate Mexican newspapers are now reporting that the brain-dead guy was deported earlier in the week, and had reentered the US on the Friday he was injured. He was in the process of being deported for the second time in a week, and he became violent after the handcuffs were removed. Some Mexicans seem to do anything to avoid being sent back to their own country. Why is that?

    You should pay attention to what the Mexican counsel in San Diego is saying about the incident, which so far has been nothing…and they have the official reports.

    Maybe an incident like this will explain why ICE acts so quickly against unruly deportees:

    “Mexican sentenced for attacking Border Patrol Agent

    Phoenix, Arizona – Luis Alfredo Lopez Sanchez, a Mexican citizen, was sentenced to four years in prison after pleading guilty of trying to run over an agent of the Border Patrol last August. According to authorities, Lopez illegally crossed the border last August and four days later, a Border Patrol helicopter spotted him and landed to offer medical assistance. On being approached by one of the helicopter crew, Lopez ran to his pickup truck, started it and accelerated toward one of the agents. who fired three shots to try to divert the course of the vehicle. At he last moment the agent had to leap aside to keep from being run over. Lopez tried to flee in the pickup, but was followed by the helicopter. He eventually abandoned the vehicle and tried to escape on foot but continued to physically resist arrest. He was finally subdued after a shot of tear gas dissuaded him from further resistance.”

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  1. Update on San Diego Beating/Tasing… « The Mex Files

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