Thread: Suit blames border agents in immigrant drownings

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/mexico ... 7aa7b.html

Web Posted: 02/16/2006 12:00 AM CST

John MacCormack
Express-News Staff Writer

DEL RIO — It began as a routine nocturnal encounter between the U.S. Border Patrol and a group of Mexicans illegally crossing the Rio Grande.

It ended with the deaths of three immigrants amid allegations of misconduct by the American agents.

A federal wrongful death lawsuit filed last year accuses the agents of contributing to the drownings of the two women and teenager early Sept. 24, 2004, near Eagle Pass.

"These agents threw rocks ... and used profanities in an effort to make them return to Mexico by swimming across the Rio Grande," reads the lawsuit, which claims the agents should have taken the group into custody.

The lawsuit also accuses the five agents of ignoring the cries for help of the Mexicans who did not know how to swim.

The lawsuit seeks $240 million and is set for trial next year here.

In depositions taken last month, the agents denied forcing the group to swim back to Mexico or throwing rocks at them. They also said they heard no cries for help. And they said the six immigrants were given the choice of surrendering or returning to Mexico.

In its answer to the lawsuit, the government blames the person who led the group.

If it goes to trial, the lawsuit promises to shed light on little-known Border Patrol procedures for dealing with undocumented immigrants found at the river at the international border.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Harold E. Brown, who is representing the government, declined to comment.

Stephen White, a San Antonio lawyer representing several plaintiffs, said a Border Patrol videotape made with an infrared camera captured part of the fatal encounter.

"The two women and the girl could not swim. When they were videotaped, they were drowning, not swimming," he said. "When the bodies were recovered, they were fully clothed, and with shoes on, and you don't swim across the river that way."

In their depositions, the agents who responded to the sighting of the six people entering the country shortly after 4 a.m. said the group was found wading in the river, beyond the reach of apprehension.

Some of the agents acknowledged using threatening language in telling the group to either go back to Mexico or surrender.

"I told them in the Spanish language, 'vamanos com,' 'come on, let's go,' or 'vayanse para atras,' go, go back to your country,'" testified agent William Compton, who, when pressed, admitted using stronger language.

Compton said he left the scene after the six began crossing back to the Mexican side. Only later did he learn that not all of them survived.

Agent Norberto Santos, who was manning the remote camera, said he alerted Mexican authorities when he saw signs of trouble in the river.

"I saw the people going back and almost to the Mexican side. I saw something was wrong. ... They weren't making it back," he said.

Santos and the other agents also explained the realities of riverside encounters.

"If a person's not in custody, if he's in the river, I can't force him to come out. I can't force him to go back. We're at a standoff. You're there until he goes back or until he comes out," he said.

Only in extreme circumstances will an agent go after someone in the water.

Accounts of two of the three surviving Mexicans differed.

Ismael Martinez Gomez and Gerardo Ojeda, both of Guanajuato, said the agents forced them back.

"We started to walk, and they began to throw rocks. ... That's when the women started panicking and reaching for our shirts. That is when we could no longer touch the bottom of the river," Ojeda said in a statement taken two weeks after the episode.

The lawsuit also accuses the five agents of ignoring the cries for help of the Mexicans who did not know how to swim.

Let me see if I have this correctly....a group of Mexicans who can't swim are trying to cross the Rio Grande......and it is OUR fault that they drowned?
Sounds like a real smart move....NASA shouldn't use this as a recruiting area....

Only in extreme circumstances will an agent go after someone in the water.

Never go in the river after somebody too stupid to stay out of it.

Unfortunately, the bottom line is....
If they stayed out of the river they would still be alive........

Yeah, it's kind of strange how they got across the river in the first place if they couldn't swim.