Border Patrol Killing of Mexican Boy Has a Long History

The child’s body was found on the Mexican side of the U.S.-México border. And very quickly, as the story of how Border Patrol agents had killed a youth spread, recriminations began to swirl.

According to FBI accounts, agents on duty along the El Paso/Ciudad Juárez border came under attack by a group of Mexicans in México. Reportedly, “suspected illegal immigrants” began throwing rocks at the agents. In response, an agent killed 15-year-old Sergio Adrián Hernández Güereca by shooting him twice, once in the head.

What does the event mean? Fernando García, executive director of the Border Network for Human Rights, says that this incident and the killing of Anastasio Hernández (killed two weeks prior) raise questions on the “overall respect toward the rights and lives of migrants crossing the US/Mexico border.” Meanwhile, Mexican officials claim the Border Patrol agent broke international agreements by killing a Mexican citizen on his own land. On the other hand, the union representing Border Patrol agents has come out in defense of the act, saying that rock-throwing "justifies the use of deadly force." Accordingly, the group issued a press release this week, which opened with the line: “Since biblical times, rocks have been used as a crude but effective weapon to injure and kill humans.”

As facts continue to emerge, there are underlying realities that neither the Bible nor a judge can ever fully address. That is, the values that push law enforcement to support the unnecessary use of force against youth of color.

After all, the killing of Sergio Adrián Hernández Güereca is hardly the first of its kind.

On June 9, 2005, Daniel Rocha was shot and killed at the age of 18 at the hands of an Austin, TX police officer. On New Year’s Day 2009, an officer shot 22-year-old Oscar Grant in Oakland, CA. Both young men were shot in the back.

I make the connection between Adrían, Daniel and Oscar because they are a part of an ongoing history of law enforcement unjustly punishing (in these cases with death) young men of color. Whether it's zero tolerance in U.S. public schools or skewed convictions for crack cocaine (versus powder cocaine), young men of color have bore the brunt of such policies, and taken the bullets intended to enforce them.

It's no coincidence that U.S. prisons are filled by black men, and that their incarceration rates are disproportionate to that of the overall population. It's no coincidence that Fox News rushed to report that Sergio Adrián Hernández Güereca was a “known juvenile smuggler.”

The fact is, across the country, we continue to see a common fear, mistrust and disdain toward young men of color. We see it not only in Oakland, but at the border.

Such sentiment is what ultimately pushes a Border Patrol agent to shoot a young boy in the face. It's these values that lead police to pull the trigger into the backs of restrained black and Latino young men. And it's this phenomenon that ensure our prisons will continue to overflow, while the real problems in our communities remain untouched, and unseen.

Photo Credit: gcfairch