Border Rights’ Group Says Abuse on Upswing : Migration: Study claims 149 incidents of abuse by Border Patrol and law-enforcement agencies in the San Diego area over a two-year period.

A total of 149 people have told a Quaker-led rights group that they suffered immigration-related abuses during a recent two-year period at the hands of the U.S. Border Patrol and other law enforcement agencies in the San Diego area, the group said Friday.

The statistics indicate an upswing in alleged abuses--particularly beatings and other physical mistreatment--and demonstrate the need for civilian oversight of such complaints, according to the Immigration Law Enforcement Monitoring Project, the Quaker organization that compiled the numbers.

“We don’t have any confidence in the way these allegations are currently being investigated,” Jorge Hinojosa, a monitoring project coordinator in San Diego, said during a news conference.

Gustavo De la Vina, chief Border Patrol agent in San Diego, disputed the validity of the numbers and repeated earlier contentions that sufficient oversight is already in place, including routine internal patrol investigations, and, in the case of shootings, inquiries by area police departments.

Allegations of abuse, De la Vina said, are now subject to review by two independent Justice Department agencies, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Office of Inspector General.

Last month, the chief noted, the patrol fired a three-year veteran of the force after the agent, who remains publicly unidentified, was accused of using undue physical force against a smuggler in the northern San Diego area. Another agent, Michael Paul Ostrander, was suspended for 30 days without pay earlier this year for firing his weapon into a van filled with immigrants, striking two of the occupants.

“I stand by the men and women of the San Diego Border Patrol sector,” said De la Vina, who noted that agents had recorded more than 800,000 arrests of undocumented immigrants during the two-year period studied by the rights group.

The FBI is investigating potential civil rights violations in connection with a number of alleged abuse cases involving the Border Patrol in San Diego, said Ron Orrantia, an FBI spokesman. Among those being looked at are the fatal Border Patrol shootings of two Mexican men near the border in San Diego last year.

The Quaker group’s study, is part of a continuing effort to document allegations of abuse.

The 149 victims who came forward represent “the tip of the iceberg,” said Roberto Martinez, border representative in San Diego for the American Friends Service Committee, the Quaker social-action group that oversaw the study. Most victims never report such abuse, said Martinez, who cited a pervasive fear of the system.

In most of the 149 cases investigated, Hinojosa said, formal complaints had not been filed with the Border Patrol, FBI or other agencies. That is because of a lack of confidence in the agencies’ desire to conduct independent inquiries into the actions of fellow law enforcement officers, Hinojosa said.

Almost three-quarters of all abuses catalogued were committed by the Border Patrol, Hinojosa said, but other agencies--including the U.S. Customs Service, National Guard and local police forces--were also implicated.

In more than half the cases, Hinojosa said, witnesses or other evidence have partly corroborated the allegations. But the group’s investigators did not interview law enforcement officers.

Most of the 149 victims were undocumented Mexican citizens, according to the group’s statistics, but a substantial number--almost one-third--were U.S. residents, mostly of Mexican ancestry. The majority of cases involved allegations of physical abuse, such as beatings, or, alternately, of psychological and verbal abuse, such as the use of racial slurs, the group said.

One alleged victim, Jose Luis Garcia Carrillo, a 31-year-old Mexican citizen, said a Border Patrol agent slammed his head with a flashlight on the morning of April 16, as he was running back to Mexico from San Diego. The wound required 10 stitches, said Garcia, whose forehead bears a half-moon scar he says was incurred that evening.

“I guess this (the scar) is a souvenir of my first time in the United States, my first trip to Disneylandia, “ Garcia, a father of two from Mexico City, said after the news conference. “This (the United States) is a wonderful country; there are many opportunities there,” said Garcia, a university student and health professional in Mexico who now waits on tables in San Diego. “I just don’t understand why they treat us like this.”