CONTACT: Tom Hargis, Director of Communications, ACLU of Texas, 832.291.4776, [email protected]
Houston – The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated a case challenging the callus and unwarranted shooting of a 15-year-old child by a Border Patrol agent. The child, a Mexican national, was playing with his friends on the Mexican side of the river when a Border Patrol agent shot the child in the face and killed him. The Court held that the Constitution’s protection against arbitrary and egregious misconduct by the government that shocks the conscience extends to non-citizens near the U.S. border who are injured by law enforcement agents in the U.S.
The following statement can be attributed to Adriana Piñon, senior staff attorney, ACLU of Texas:
“Today the Fifth Circuit helped ensure that CBP agents are held accountable for shocking and outrageous abuse, even when their victims aren’t inside the U.S. Since 2010, CBP agents killed six Mexican nationals who were standing near the Mexico side of the U.S-Mexico border and CBP has taken no steps to hold the agents accountable. The Fifth Circuit clearly signaled that Border Patrol cannot operate with impunity.”
View the court’s decision here: http://aclutx.org/download/181
Contributing to the ACLU’s amicus brief in the case were Lee Gelernt, Esha Bhandari, Cecillia D. Wang and Steven Watt of the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation; James Duff Lyle and Daniel Pochoda of the ACLU of Arizona; Krystal Gomez and Rebecca Robertson of the ACLU of Texas; Sean Riordan of the ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties; and Alexandra Smith of the ACLU Foundation of New Mexico.
