Oversight Panel for Border Patrol Is Urged

Violence along the U.S.-Mexico border underscores the need for some form of independent civilian review of alleged abuses attributed to law enforcement agencies and criminals motivated by racism, according to California activists who have been investigating the problem.

“I look at the oversight right now, and I would say it is more lap dog than watchdog,” said Samuel Cacas, board member of the Break the Silence Against Anti-Asian Violence, an Oakland-based rights group, citing alleged abuses commited by the U.S. Border Patrol.

Cacas was among more than 50 activists from throughout California who participated in a three-day fact-finding inquiry into reports of abuse of Latinos in the border area, where thousands of immigrants illegally enter U.S. territory each day. The group--known formally as the California Border Violence Delegation Project--ended its on-site investigation Friday, after visiting crossing zones and meeting with officials, advocates, immigrants and others on both sides of the international border.

The delegation is scheduled to release a report with recommendations in several months, but participants said that one likely suggestion is an independent civilian oversight body to review cases of alleged abuse. Many activists were particularly critical of existing oversight of the Border Patrol, a uniformed arm of the Immigration and Naturalization Service that policy-makers consider the “first line of defense” at the porous international line.

“What is clear to me is that we need a better system of investigating shootings and other abuses by the INS,” said Vibiana Andrade, regional counsel in Los Angeles with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. “The INS has to be more responsive to complaints, and more responsive to the community.”

The activists also are likely to recommend additional public education about the invigorating role of immigrants in U.S. society, a move that is in part designed to counter what many believe is a rising tide of anti-immigrant sentiment and “hate” crimes in the border area and elsewhere in California.

“U.S. citizens need to be better informed about how immigrants have enriched our society and our economy,” said Stephen E. Blaire, auxiliary bishop with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, which includes 2 million Latinos, half of its membership.

Officials of the INS and the Border Patrol have defended existing procedures for investigating allegations of abuse. Under existing guidelines, authorities say, all such charges are forwarded to the Office of Inspector General, an independent internal-affairs unit within the Justice Department.

That office may take actions ranging from verbal reprimand of offending agents to recommending criminal prosecution of wrongdoers, Gustavo De la Vina, chief patrol agent in San Diego, informed the activist delegation when he met with them Wednesday. The agency only receives about one complaint for every 17,000 arrests in the San Diego border area, De la Vina said, a fact that he said reflects the Border Patrol’s clean record--but one that critics say is illustrative of the shortcomings of the existing complaint procedure.

“There are currently sufficient independent entities in place to oversee our activities,” said Ted Swofford, supervisory Border Patrol agent in San Diego, home base for almost 800 border guards, the largest such contingent nationwide.

From the perspective of the Border Patrol, Swofford said, the vast majority of violence in the border zone is perpetrated by thieves and smugglers, many of whom often attack immigrants en route north. Suspected robbers killed nine people in the border area of San Diego during 1990, authorities say. Border Patrol officers shot and killed two people in the San Diego area last year, authorities say. In both cases, the shooting occurred when suspects resisted arrest, according to the Border Patrol.

Any decision on creating a civilian review procedure for the Border Patrol would have to be made in Washington, De la Vina noted.

Although many police agencies have instituted civil review boards in recent years, experts noted that creating such bodies to oversee immigration officials would likely be more complicated. Any civilian review procedure involving the Border Patrol, for instance, could theoretically have implications for a host of other federal law enforcement agencies, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration, both of which have often been criticized by rights activists.

In the most recent alleged abuse case involving the Border Patrol, Sabina Rocha, an undocumented 20-year-old Mexican woman who lives in Encinitas, has filed a $1-million claim against the agency.

She contends that a Border Patrol agent sexually assaulted her in a migrant camp in northern San Diego County last September. FBI agents have completed a preliminary investigation into possible civil rights violations in connection with the case, and the matter is now being reviewed by federal prosecutors, said Ron Orrantia, an FBI spokesman in San Diego. Border Patrol officials declined to comment.

Apart from the Border Patrol, activists singled out other law enforcement bodies--including police in San Diego and Tijuana--for alleged mistreatment of immigrants. Mexican police have long supplemented their salaries by extorting bribes from northbound migrants, many of whom are frequently beaten, noted Victor Clark Alfaro, who heads a Tijuana-based human rights group.