Abuse on the Border

History repeats itself: The U.S. has promised to investigate a case of violence by U.S. authorities against a Mexican, but we have heard this before. The death of a Mexican along the border between Tamaulipas and Texas on July 7 reminds Mexico that the United States does not apply principles of humanity or dignified treatment on its own territory — concepts that it presses on the rest of the world.

Through the Foreign Ministry, the Mexican government has expressed its displeasure about the use of disproportionate lethal force. The official report of the incident by the border patrol reveals the asymmetry of force: The agents confirmed that they shot at the people that threw rocks at them. No U.S. official was injured; however, 30-year-old Juan Pablo Perez Santillan died.

As the Mexican government has said, every country has a right to establish norms and guidelines by which they control their borders, but this should be made respecting human rights and international conventions. One life isn’t less valuable simply because it is one of thousands that have been lost attempting to cross the border. The United States has taken an aggressive stance to controlling its borders, and with reason, but Mexico needs and deserves answers about deaths of their citizens on their own land.

The death of Perez Santillan is not an isolated event. The exacerbated anti-immigrant climate is reflected in various cases. In June 2010, for example, Anastasio Hernandez Rojas, a 42-year-old undocumented Mexican and father of five children, was assassinated by a member of California’s border patrol. Weeks after, an agent of the same governmental group shot and killed 15-year-old Sergio Adrian Hernandez Guereca in Texas. The FBI has publicized that one in every 10 hate crimes in the United States are committed with an anti-Hispanic sentiment. There is a clear problem of racism in the United States.

Of course they should investigate the events to clarify the responsibility of the border agents, but this is not enough. The United States must revise the protocols of its personnel and train them better. Angry civilians with rocks in their hands are not the same as dangerous drug traffickers.