U.S. Begins Inquiry Into Alleged Beating by Border Patrol Agent

The Justice Department is investigating allegations that a U.S. Border Patrol agent severely beat an undocumented migrant last week, officials said.

Hermelindo Sandoval Martinez, 24, was in good condition Tuesday at Chula Vista Community Hospital with internal injuries, a hospital spokeswoman said.

He was interviewed by the Mexican Consulate and the American Friends Service Committee, both of which called for an investigation. Border Patrol spokesman Randy Warrick said the office of inspector general, the internal investigation arm of the Justice Department, would examine the case.

Warrick would not disclose the name of the agent who allegedly beat Sandoval, nor any agents who may have been present.

Sandoval said the agent who arrested him kicked him repeatedly in the stomach and struck him with a flashlight in the chest and back.

“I can’t believe that a normal person would do something like that,” Sandoval said in an interview Monday.

Sandoval said he did nothing to provoke the beating he allegedly received after he was detained at a section of the Tijuana River’s flood-control channel west of the San Ysidro Port of Entry.

Sandoval said he is not a smuggler, but was helping his friend’s sister cross the border as a favor when they were detained by Border Patrol agents last Wednesday. Immediately, the beating began, he said.

“I barely had any time to walk when he struck me with a flashlight in the chest and threw me on the ground,” Sandoval said. “Then he kneed me in the stomach.

“After he put handcuffs on me, he took me behind the patrol car. I kept telling him, ‘Please don’t hit me. Please don’t hit me. I’m sorry, I’m sorry.’

“Then he hit me again with the flashlight,” Sandoval said. “I fell to my knees, and then he held me up with both hands and kicked me twice in the stomach.”

As many as three Border Patrol agents watched or were present during the alleged attack, he said. Sandoval said he was placed in a detention facility for a couple of hours and was being led away again, possibly back to Tijuana, when he complained to the Border Patrol driver that he was in pain. He was taken to the hospital.