Probe Into Death of Youth Seized in INS Raid Urged

An immigration rights group demanded an investigation Wednesday into the death of Ismael Ramirez, a 17-year-old Mexican national arrested by Border Patrol agents last month during a raid in the San Joaquin Valley community of Madera.

Isabel Vazquez, spokeswoman for the East Los Angeles Immigration Project, told a Los Angeles press conference that witness Tomas Pena reported seeing an agent catch the fleeing Ramirez, pick him up and slam him to the pavement. And then when the teen-ager began vomiting blood, she said, no one sought immediate medical attention.

“We demand that the Fresno County district attorney and the state attorney general begin to investigate the incident immediately,” Vazquez said. “Furthermore, we are appealing to the Hispanic Congressional Caucus to intervene so a federal investigation takes place as well.”

John Belluardo, director of congressional public affairs at the Immigration and Naturalization Service’s regional office in Los Angeles, said the Feb. 15 death is being investigated by the federal office of professional responsibility and possibly the FBI.

“The Madera incident is an extremely regrettable and unfortunate accident,” Belluardo said. “We are extremely remorseful that the incident occurred, but unfortunately during law enforcement activities accidents do happen.”

He said his understanding of the case is similar to an account related by Alan Conroy, Border Patrol agent-in-charge in the Fresno-Madera area. Conroy reported that agents chased Ramirez for half a block, grabbed him and the youth fell. And when Ramirez became ill about 15 minutes later, the youth was removed from a patrol van and taken to a hospital.

After the young man’s death, Vazquez said, civil rights and Latino groups formed a coalition to protest Border Patrol raids.

She pointed out that Ramirez was “not the first person who has died in custody of INS.” There also was a recent case in the San Diego area, she said.

Attorney Antonio H. Rodriguez, executive director of the East Los Angeles Immigration Project, said he is representing Inez Jurado Aguilera, mother of four and wife of Martin Aguilera, 26, who died early last month after his arrest by the Border Patrol.

The lawyer said that Aguilera became ill after his arrest near the border but, instead of summoning immediate medical assistance, agents isolated Aguilera in a cell and called paramedics only after he fell unconscious.

Rodriguez called for an official investigation of the events.

William Veal, deputy chief of the San Diego sector of the Border Patrol, said Wednesday that a man whom agents arrested on the evening of Feb. 7 complained of shortness of breath after being placed in a holding cell.

An agent qualified as an emergency medical technician examined the prisoner and recommended that he be watched closely, Veal said. After checking him every 4 or 5 minutes a number of times, Veal said, the man was found on the floor and sent to the hospital.

Veal said the case is being investigated by San Diego police and the coroner’s office.