INS Chief Orders Review of Lethal Force by Border Patrol

In the wake of a series of controversial shootings by Border Patrol officers, federal Immigration and Naturalization Commissioner Gene McNary has called for an unprecedented review of lethal force procedures used by U.S. immigration agents

“Escalating violence on the southern border has resulted in injuries and even deaths,” McNary said in a statement from Washington. “The review . . . will begin immediately to determine what steps the INS can take to eliminate or dramatically reduce these incidents.”

Immigrant advocate groups, who have long contended that Border Patrol officers are too quick to pull their triggers and otherwise resort to force, commended the action as a necessary “first step,” in the words of Roberto Martinez, border representative in San Diego for the American Friends Service Committee, a social action arm of the Quaker Church.

But Martinez noted that the commissioner took no action in connection with alleged instances of non-lethal abuse, such as beatings and the destruction of immigrants’ documents, which he said are common complaints. In addition, Martinez and others have noted that immigration service reforms would do nothing to revise a perceived hesitancy on the part of local prosecutors to bring criminal abuse charges against federal agents.

“The problem runs a lot deeper than lethal force, although nothing else is as bad as that,” Martinez said.

Immigration authorities plan to evaluate a broad range of alternatives to lethal force, including the use of non-lethal defensive weapons and the issuance of helmets and safety glasses to officers, the first-year commissioner said. McNary cited escalating violence along the border, a phenomenon he traced to “bandits, armed smugglers of drugs and people, and rock-throwing gangs.”

Officials said that all potential alternatives would be looked at, including the potential use of rubber bullets and stun guns.

The Border Patrol, which has about 3,800 agents nationwide, mostly along the southern border, arrests more than 1 million people annually--more than any other police force in the world, according to American authorities.

U.S. officials defend the agency’s record, saying that allegations of abuse are few, compared to the volume of arrests by patrol agents.

Violence has been most pronounced in the San Diego area, the largest single entry point forundocumented immigrants entering U.S. territory from Mexico. Almost 800 Border Patrol agents are based in San Diego, the largest such deployment in the nation.

In the last year, agents posted along the California-Mexico border have shot at least seven people, killing four of them. Thieves have killed at least six more, police say.