Two high-profile and controversial criminal trials put the spotlight on the U.S. Border Patrol at an inopportune time and in an unflattering way—just when the agency was rushing to hire more agents last year.
But in the end, the Border Patrol won on all fronts, meeting its 2008 goal of hiring 6,000 new officers while seeing charges dropped against one agent accused of murdering an illegal immigrant after two mistrials and two other former agents convicted in a shooting and cover up freed from prison by President Bush.
Evan Wyloge
CLICK IMAGE TO VIEWIt was a tough year for the Border Patrol not only in courtrooms but on the job as border violence exploded and violence against agents was on the rise.
It’s against that backdrop that the two high-profile cases drew national attention, inflaming emotions on both sides of the immigration debate. The agents drew legions of supporters who said the officers were just doing their jobs. But immigration advocacy groups said the results mean that agents can act with virtual impunity when dealing with illegal immigrants.
In one of the cases, Border Patrol officer Nicholas Corbett, 40, was on trial for a Jan. 12, 2007 shooting near the border between Bisbee and Douglas that left an illegal immigrant dead. Corbett was charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter and negligent homicide in the death of 20-year-old Francisco Javier Dominguez-Rivera.
Evidence indicated that Dominguez-Rivera was shot from less than a foot away while Corbett claimed that the man was going to hit him with a rock and he shot in self-defense, according to news accounts.
It was the second hung-jury and mistrial for Corbett in eight months. The Cochise County Attorney’s office announced in December that it was dismissing the charges against Corbett and a third trial wouldn’t be held.
The family of Dominguez-Rivera in December filed a civil lawsuit against Corbett charging wrongful-death.
Katie O’Connor, program and grants coordinator for Border Action Network, a Tucson-based human-rights group, said that Corbett’s case has set a precedent for any future cases against law enforcement.
“When other cases come up it’s almost fruitless to bring it to trial, because it seems like a jury won’t convict law enforcement,” O’Connor said. “I think this does send a message that law enforcement is above the law. And people have a hard time getting past that.”
civil lawsuit against Corbett charging wrongful-death.”
Border Action Network recommends that the Border Patrol have an oversight and accountability system complaint process that is more transparent. O’Connor also said that an increase in Border Patrol agent training in U.S. Constitutional rights would benefit agents and the public.
The outcome of cases like Corbett’s make human-rights groups like Border Action Network worry that violence against illegal immigrants on the border could increase.
Yet Border Patrol agents say they are the ones facing increased violence. The Border Patrol reported that in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2007, attacks against officers increased 11 percent from the year before, and assaults increased 19 percent. Despite these increases, Border Patrol agents have decreased the amount of times they fired their weapons, the report showed.
Two agents patrolling the border near El Paso, Texas on Feb. 17, 2005 claimed it was a violent threat that triggered them to shoot Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila. The agents, Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean. Ramos and Compean said they caught sight of Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, an illegal immigrant, and a van, which held one ton of marijuana.
Ramos and Compean claimed that Aldrete-Davila was fleeing and they saw him turn around and point something shiny at them, which they said they thought was a gun.
Ramos and Compean said they fired at Aldrete-Davila, shooting him in the buttocks. In conflicting testimony, Aldrete-Davila, said he was unarmed and that he was trying to surrender when Compean beat him with a shotgun. He said he was shot while fleeing toward the Rio Grande.
Ramos and Compean ultimately were convicted in early March 2006 for the discharge of a firearm in the commission of a violent crime, violation of civil rights, assault charges, and tampering with evidence. Aldrete-Davila, who was given immunity to testify in the case against the agents, was later arrested and convicted in 2007 on drug smuggling charges.
Ramos received 11 years in prison and Compean was sentenced to12 years in prison. Their sentences were reaffirmed in November, just two months before President Bush’s pardon.
The Ramos and Compean cases became political hot potatoes as supporters on both sides of the political aisles argued the sentences were too harsh.
The families of the two former agents waged a long campaign to try to secure their release.
Joe Loya, Ramos’ father-in-law, campaigned for almost four years and raised and spent nearly $2 million towards winning the commutation of the sentences for Ramos and Compean.
In interviews conducted before Bush’s presidential order, Loya said that the family held hope that the president would, in fact, commute the sentences.
“We are praying and hoping President Bush will commute the sentences of these agents,” Loya said. “But it’s not over (if he doesn’t). We want to overturn the sentences.”
He said he believed that the commutation of sentences had a better chance from Bush than incoming President Barack Obama. “Our support comes from patriots and the majority comes from the Republican Party,” Loya said.
The whole ordeal, Loya said, made him question the judicial process. “It makes me wonder how many thousands, or tens of thousands of people behind bars are innocent,” Loya said. “Ramos and Compean never lied and never covered up anything.”
The Border agent trials have been covered extensively at a time when the Border Patrol was attempting to recruit 6,000 more agents by the end of the year. President Bush set a goal of doubling the Border Patrol’s workforce during his presidency to more than 18,000 agents.
The agency met its goal in December by aggressively recruiting in minority communities and at military bases, which provided nearly a quarter of the new Border Patrol enlistees.
But while the goals were met, U.S. Border Patrol agent Michael Bernanke, who works along the 125-mile Yuma sector, said training and placement of new recruits could take over a year.
"We are doing very good on the numbers," Bernanke said. "But the entire process from being a Border Patrol intern to a fully fledged Border Patrol agent takes about 20 months," Bernanke said. "So it's a lot longer now."
And, Bernanke, said not everyone who starts the training process finishes. Once an agent is deployed to the border, it isn’t always an exciting job. As fence technologies improve and crossings are the lowest they have been in years, Border Patrol agents even can get bored.
"Especially nowadays, it's so slow that boredom is a very common occurrence," Bernanke said.
Turnover, especially among new recruits, is relatively high. Agents have 10-hour patrol shifts along the border and don't often see any fellow agents as they are placed between 30 minutes to an hour apart from one another. With new recruits coming from all 50 states, Bernanke said it’s not unusual for some agents who must live in small, isolated towns along the border to become lonely or homesick.
Harsh conditions along the hot, rugged Arizona border, one of the areas where fresh recruits are mandated to serve during a two-year probationary period, have also made it hard to retain agents.
Attrition rates among new recruits have increased to 29.6 percent since October, up from 23.7 percent during the previous fiscal year. New agents are classified as serving 18 months or less with the US Border Patrol.
The Border agents who stay on are finding apprehensions are severely down. In the Yuma sector where Bernanke works, apprehensions decreased 79 percent from the 2007 fiscal year to 2008. In the Tucson sector, the busiest zone for illegal entries along the border, apprehensions were down 16 percent.
Agents say the border fence, along with Border Patrol hiring and better technology have been a big part of the reason. Immigration advocates also contend that the weak economy has left fewer jobs to attract immigrants.
“It’s a three-legged stool to support the effort,” Bernanke said. “The first is fencing and lighting systems that help Border Patrol agents operate during the day. Then there is the personnel that we have added and the technology factor.”
As more border defense systems surface, including cameras, wall and vehicle barriers and more Border Patrol agents, an increase in border violence has also become more common.
Narcotics and human traffickers are becoming more desperate than ever to cross the border and are acting out in more aggressive methods.
Violent outbreaks that range from Mexican residents throwing large rocks across the border to use of weapons by smugglers, have picked up at the border, said Bernanke.
On a recent ride-along with Bernanke along the Yuma-Mexico border, rocks were thrown at Border Patrol agents. Rock throwing, along with other dangerous acts, such as flammable liquid throwing, is a common act day in and day out at the border.
"Tink, Tinks" can be heard vibrating from the Mexico side of the border fence, in acts of frustration and anger from Mexican residents. The increase in rock throwing has forced border agents to add cage-like fencing along the tops and hoods of their patrol cars to prevent windshields from shattering or any damaging their SUV’s.
Small portions of the border fence are open to adhere to U.S.-Mexico treaty laws to provide clear water passages across both countries, Bernanke said. These are the areas pose increased risk for violence like rock throwing, but also poses a passageway for immigrants to cross under the river that flows across the Yuma-Mexico border.
CLICK
IMAGE TO VIEW MAPOne such area is in San Luis, where a small break in fencing exposes the Mexican side of the border. Mexican residents often stand on a small wooden bridge participating in "staring contests" with Border Patrol agents standing only 50 feet away.
Bernanke said the fence is just another barrier and illegal immigrants may find ways to climb under or over it.
The fence is about 17 ft tall,” Bernanke said. “But someone will always build an 18-foot tall ladder.”
That is the reason why additional Border agents are needed, he said, even though apprehensions are down. “There will always be a need for Border Patrol until there are no longer any illegal immigrants trying to cross,” Bernanke said.