Critical Incident: Death at the Border (2025)

[bunniefuu]

25-43 with 2?

That's correct.

Alright, 10-4, copy that.

You know what? This is them.

I'm on the 42 fence line,

headin' east right now.

Alright, 10-4, copy that.

No, you're good.

Sit right down in this chair right here.

Perfect.

Let's see. Perfect.

Rodney Scott. So, starting in 1992,

early on, I was a border patrol agent

here in San Diego.

Later the chief patrol agent in El Centro,

then I bounced back

to San Diego as the chief.

And then, ultimately,

I was asked to be the chief

of the U.S. Border Patrol

in February of 2020.

At the baseline level...

the United States Border Patrol

is charged with protecting America.

It's literally just knowing

who and what is coming into our home.

You don't know if it's drug smugglers,

you don't know if it's human traffickers,

you don't know if it's t*rrorists.

And if you don't have anybody there

figuring out who and what

is coming into our country...

we are at risk.

So, we have 328 ports of entry

where people are supposed to come and go

from the country...

and Border Patrol's job

is just to make sure they do.

He was an ill*gal immigrant

that officers were trying

to take back to Mexico,

but at the border, something went wrong.

The incident happened at

the San Ysidro port of entry.

The man is now in critical

condition at a local hospital

and is not expected to survive.

I think it was around noon.

We had heard something from the news

about an in-custody death at the border

from the night before.

Somebody was on life support,

a Mr. Anastasio Hernndez.

Normally, in a regular

homicide investigation,

usually, there's a briefing that

occurs right after the event.

Once they know that,

that death has occurred

or death is imminent,

then the homicide unit will come out.

But, in this case,

the Border Patrol didn't tell us about it.

And then we were told

that it was treated like a medical event,

so people had gone home

from the night shift,

witnesses weren't held.

And the crime scene

had already been cleaned up.

I mean, it was basically gone.

There was no crime scene investigation.

So, we did not have a clear picture

of everything that occurred there.

Last month, Anastasio Hernndez died

after being shocked with a stun g*n

by U.S. Border Patrol agents.

First of all, who was Anastasio Hernndez?

He was 42 years old,

he'd been in the U.S. for 26 years,

crossed as a teenager,

illegally, to work here.

He built pools here, he had a wife here,

and had five U.S. citizen children

who were living here.

In a few weeks, we can expect

a civil lawsuit on behalf of the family.

It was Maria whom I met.

And she was, of course, distraught.

But she basically said, "I want justice."

And as I took the case,

I understood that

with a civil case like this

against the Border Patrol...

it's like...

k*lling the king.

You wanna make sure that you don't miss.

We knew this may be difficult...

but we also knew from the very beginning

that there was something more to this case

because the Border Patrol

was requested to turn over

certain evidence and information,

and in certain critical respects,

they failed to do so.

Early on in the investigation,

we had some witness video,

but you couldn't really see anything.

So, we wanted to get video

from the Border Patrol

to see what happened at that spot.

It's a section of the border

called Whiskey 2.

And this is right where they

do the deportation walkout.

So, we assumed they would have

cameras there, which they did.

But, they said they did not have the video

from that camera...

and we kept getting the runaround.

They said they didn't know

how to use the system...

they gave us the wrong

location at one point.

After a while,

they did provide other video

from before they transported

Mr. Hernndez...

but that was the best we got.

It was frustrating.

You think of the busiest

border in the world,

we could get that video

and that it would exist...

and we never got it.

Yes, I do.

It was an ill*gal alien that

Border Patrol agents arrested.

They were sending him back south,

and he kinda flipped out.

Multiple agents responded,

and ultimately, he ended up...

he ended up passing away.

I don't have all the specifics of those,

but I know at least one of the cameras

that they think something was erased

wasn't a real camera.

It was a decoy camera that

had been installed years and years ago

when the Border Patrol had a sub-office

right there at the port of entry,

and it was to deter people

from jumping the pedestrian gate

and running north,

but it, literally, was like

1990s-era fake camera,

that was never hooked to anything.

San Diego has very limited

video capability,

and most of it is pretty outdated.

There was nothing that was--

I've not seen any evidence whatsoever

that anything was deleted or is missing.

There's no deleted video. No.

10News has uncovered new details tonight

about the immigrant who died

after being deported.

The autopsy results have now been released

on the controversial death

of Anastasio Hernndez.

But it only adds to the mystery

of what actually happened.

The San Diego medical examiner

is listing the cause of death

as a heart attack

due to the altercation

with law enforcement.

But the coroner also found

methamphetamines in his blood,

which raised the question,

had methamphetamines somehow contributed

to the altercation?

Would counsel please introduce yourselves

and state who you represent?

Gene Iredale for the plaintiffs,

and I'm here with Maria Puga,

who is the widow.

Now, you understand

that you're under oath?

-I do.

-And that that oath requires you

to tell the truth in this deposition?

Yes.

Let's talk about the encounter

with Mr. Hernndez.

From your observations

of Anastasio's demeanor,

he did not appear to be drunk, correct?

He did not appear to be drunk.

And you found no weapons?

-No.

-Right? Found no drugs?

No.

And so, he did not appear to be

under the influence of drugs, correct?

I don't know that to be a fact.

At this point, then, you drove him

to the area known as Whiskey 2?

-Yes, sir.

-He was going to be returned to Mexico.

-Yes, sir.

-So, you began to take off

-the handcuffs from him.

-Yes.

Once you took off one of the handcuffs,

he started to move around too much,

for your perception

of your safety, is that fair?

Yes.

And you grabbed Anastasio, correct?

Yes.

And there was a struggle

between you and him?

Yes.

He was kicking at agents.

He was thrashing,

thrashing around like,

basically, like an alligator.

If you can imagine the TV show,

The Crocodile Hunter,

and what an al--

what a crocodile does when it's--

when it gets its game and kills it,

and it starts rolling and twisting.

Do you remember if Mr. Hernndez

stopped resisting at any point?

No, I don't.

That never happened

as far as you're concerned?

As far as my memory goes, no, sir.

So, you went in and used force?

I used physical techniques, yes.

You quarrel with the use

of the word "force"?

No.

You used force, yes?

I thought a better descriptive

would be "physical techniques."

Now, do you know the words in Spanish for,

"I cannot breathe"?

I do not.

Did you hear him say, at some point,

-"I cannot breathe"?

-I did not.

If you're yelling and screaming,

you're moving air and you're breathing.

You at the time, I believe,

were looking out at a crowd

that was gathering.

-Is that true?

-Yes.

And the people in the crowd,

some of them were saying,

"Stop being so brutal,"

or words to that effect.

"Stop what you're doing." Right.

"Stop hitting him, stop hurting him."

Correct.

And I didn't understand what they were,

I mean, I guess from his screaming,

when they were, you know,

when he was screaming,

"Stop hurting me,

stop punching me," whatever,

and the crowd kinda

just fueled off of that,

and just basically repeated

what he was saying.

And I looked at him

and I looked at the crowd,

I'm like, who's pun--

Nobody's punching him,

he's just laying on the ground,

banging his head on the ground.

It's all self-inflicted,

so I didn't understand

why he was, I mean, saying that.

So, he was hitting his head on the ground?

Yes.

That was a primary concern,

that he was injuring himself,

and we did not want him

to injure himself or injure us.

So, one of the reasons you took him down

was for his own safety, correct?

Correct.

And the crowd foolishly thought

that there was some brutality going on,

-correct?

-Right.

And they didn't understand

that Mr. Hernndez

was hitting his own head

and causing this pain

-to himself, correct?

-Right.

And they didn't understand that the agents

were merely doing their job

and nothing more, correct?

They were trying to stop him

-from hurting himself.

-Yes.

And they were able

to do that until, finally,

unfortunately,

he stopped breathing, correct?

-I-- Yes.

-Yes.

They helped him to that extent, at least.

Thank you so much. That's all I have.

Off the record at 1:25 p.m.

So, at that point...

we had statements of the agents...

we had a video where

you couldn't see anything.

And you have nothing more, no case.

I've been a reporter for a long time.

And my entire career as a journalist

has been reporting on the Border Patrol.

So, when Anastasio was k*lled,

I knew that I had to look into this.

And I started calling whoever,

whoever was responsible,

Border Patrol,

San Diego Police Department,

and there was really

very little information.

But there were eyewitnesses,

and you can hear them in the videotape.

The police had never been able

to track them down.

So, for me, there was this hunt.

I spent about a month,

and I interviewed people

south of the border...

anybody who was associated with the case.

And I finally found another person

who was there that night.

They were up on a bridge,

and they had video.

It was new evidence...

but they were very scared

about coming forward

because of retaliation

from the Border Patrol.

So, the person said,

"John can contact me...

"but I'm not gonna give him the video,

he can't see the video,

but I'll talk to him

and I'll tell him what I saw."

I talked to her for a long time.

She was, at the time, 22 years old.

And she was really scared.

So, she put a kibosh on everything.

Time went by...

months.

But I now had her cell phone number.

So, I would send her

cases that were highly suspicious cases...

people being shot, people being k*lled,

people being brutalized at the border.

And I think that kinda softened her.

It took me two years

but she finally said,

"I'll send you the video."

So, she sent me a CD in an envelope.

And the return address

was just "Disneyland."

Just go back to the beginning

where you just started.

In the deposition testimony,

the agents say that he got up,

he tried to attack them,

he lunged for them, he kicked them.

But right now, I just see somebody

who's lying on the ground.

Alright, let me just do

some noise reduction here

so we can see a little better.

So, at this point,

you could hear one of the agents yell,

three times in a row, "Quit resisting!"

But he's not resisting.

So, my take on what is happening here is,

he's not saying

"Quit resisting" to Anastasio,

he's saying "Quit resisting,"

so that everybody

who's watching will think

that this guy was being combative.

Now, you can see agents starting to pile

and punch, punch,

you can see that arm and that fist.

And then, one of the agents,

somehow, grabs his pants.

I mean, I can't tell

what's in an agent's mind

but it just feels like they're trying

to teach him a lesson somehow.

Because he's not a threat.

Latino community groups

say they want answers

about the death

of Anastasio Hernndez-Rojas.

Previously undisclosed

video from two years ago

was obtained by reporter,

John Carlos Frey,

and aired in a national special

Friday night on PBS

has sparked fresh calls

for justice in the case.

There were similar protests

in several other cities today,

including Boston, Los Angeles,

Miami, and San Francisco.

Don't hide behind your badge!

Don't hide behind your uniforms!

John Carlos Frey,

what is next in this case?

I know the civil suit's filed.

What is next here?

We don't know the officers' names,

there are no criminal

proceedings in this case.

The family has been waiting for two years,

so we're hoping that members

of Congress watch this

and push that stone up the hill

a little bit further.

We already had a civil case going on,

but after there was a public outcry,

the Department of Justice

finally gets involved.

They begin a Grand Jury investigation

to assess individual criminal culpability.

And it's happening

as we continue to conduct

depositions for the civil case.

Now, you're aware of an ongoing

Grand Jury investigation,

is that true?

-Yes.

-And that the Grand Jury proceeding

is a criminal investigation

into the death

of Anastasio Hernndez-Rojas?

Yes.

Alright.

On the night of the incident

with Mr. Hernndez,

is it true that you were

the person who had tased him

and who was there

when he stopped breathing?

Object, lacks foundation,

and I advise you to decline to answer.

I decline to answer based

on my Fifth Amendment right.

As soon as the tasing began,

you turned to intercept a man and a woman

that had a camera phone, correct?

On the advice of counsel,

I, unfortunately,

must decline to answer the question.

You attempted to fire the taser

even though he was

not resisting in any way?

I decline to answer this question.

You believed that the man and the woman

had taken video of the incident,

is that right?

On the advice of counsel,

I, unfortunately,

must decline to answer the question.

You wanted to hurt him. Is that right?

I decline to answer this question.

And then, you, yourself, erased the video

on the camera phone, correct?

On the advice of counsel,

I, unfortunately, must decline

to answer the question.

As soon as the Grand Jury is terminated

and it takes no further action,

I will be able to respond.

Now that the Justice Department

has confirmed that

a Grand Jury is investigating,

at a press conference this morning,

the family of Anastasio Hernndez-Rojas

said today it's a step

in the right direction.

It seems the Department of Justice

is, in fact, doing its job,

they committed to us that they would

use all of their resources

to investigate this case

and it appears that

they are doing just that.

10News reached out

to the government attorneys,

we were told since it's in active

litigation, there is no comment.

The Grand Jury has been pending

for, now, three years.

We don't know if that is

close to concluding or not.

We've made inquiries,

but we have no answers.

The Department of Justice

announced on Friday

that no border agents will be prosecuted

for the k*lling

of Anastasio Hernndez-Rojas.

The Department of Justice say

there was insufficient evidence

to pursue federal charges

against the agents,

even though eyewitness video

showed him being tased and beaten.

Federal officials say they do not believe

agents acted with malice.

They say the meth in his system

also contributed to his death.

This is a devastating decision

for the family of Anastasio...

but Customs and Border Protection

has long enjoyed virtual impunity

in this country.

I'm Raul Ortiz.

I'm the chief of the United States

Border Patrol.

We're deeply based in tradition,

and I'm very, very proud of the fact

that we've got 98 years of tradition

that we started with

and that we still hang on to.

We like to consider

ourselves sort of paramilitary,

and, so, we have a rank structure,

35, 36% of my officers

are prior military,

and so, we are steep in tradition.

Our motto's "Honor First"

and we live and stand by that.

Not at all. I think that there's

a serious misunderstanding

about what happens in some

of these border environments,

in these communities,

but also, we're a big

law enforcement organization.

When you think about the almost

3,000 professional staff

and almost 20,000 Border Patrol agents,

plus contractors and others,

I mean, 24,000 people

are tied to the Border Patrol,

a 6.1 billion dollar budget

is tied to the United States

Border Patrol.

And so, that's an awful lot of pressure,

but it's also, I think, a high expectation

that we're gonna do everything

we can to secure our borders,

take care of our communities,

take care of each other.

I remember it vaguely,

not enough to have

a conversation about it.

Yeah, that was the one at Whiskey 2? Yeah.

-And I wanna s--

-Tell them go back to--

-I don't--

-Yeah.

I'd be careful stressing that

because I can think of one.

Compean, Ramos.

They did, but it was still

successfully prosecuted, so I'd-- Yeah.

Yeah.

There is appropriate accountability

and oversight in the U.S.

Border Patrol, CBP, and DHS,

and we continue to add,

I think, additional oversight,

whether it's, you know, looking at our

use of force policies

that we have in place,

whether it's working

with other organizations,

so we continuously strive

to be better at who

we are as an organization.

Even though the Department of Justice

did not prosecute the agents,

we were still fighting the civil case...

but the government had delayed

the civil case for three years

by using appeals.

And I became concerned

about losing witnesses,

I was concerned about the passage of time.

So, we decided to settle the civil case.

Alright, so...

we're gonna nerd out today

about international human rights law.

In this course,

I am going to talk about what

human rights are in terms

of their legal protections.

And part of what I want

to acculturate you to,

is what it is you don't know,

and what it is you would need to know

in order to answer

the question being asked.

Border Patrol have obstructed

this case as much as they could,

and we are tired of it.

Because it is plain to us that there

is something rotten throughout the agency.

Andrea Guerrero from

the Southern Border Communities Coalition

is my classmate from law school.

When she told me about Anastasio's case,

I had spent the prior 10 years litigating

cases of extrajudicial killings

in Colombia and in Guatemala,

and it was just very familiar to me.

And I said,

"Well, have you ever considered

bringing a case before

an international court?"

It's the only place where you

can sue the United States

for human rights abuse.

They cannot put anybody in prison...

but they can challenge

the entire Border Patrol system...

because the way that we define excessive

use of force in the United States

could be a violation of international law.

In order for us to bring this case,

we need to revisit the investigation...

but also, we need to learn more

about how the Border Patrol operates.

So, our next guest

is a very brave person.

She worked for the U.S. Border Patrol

and has now turned into a critic

and our staunch ally

in these fights, Jenn Budd.

Yay, Jenn!

So, Pedro was talking about

how Border Patrol agents

commit a lot of brutality

and atrocious crimes against migrants,

and yet, Border Patrol agents

are never held accountable.

Let's take the recent case

that just happened.

Young man, they claimed

that he picked up a rock

and tried to throw it at the agent,

and so the agent had to sh**t him

four times and k*lled him.

This is just nonsense.

But it's not just migrants.

This happens to U.S. citizens who come

into contact with Border Patrol agents...

and I have a problem with that.

I was a Border Patrol agent for six years.

I left in June of 2001.

At the time, my choice

was to take a promotion

and be quiet about some of the things

that my boss was doing, or just quit.

So, I ended up resigning...

and I started down this journey of trying

to understand my involvement

as a Border Patrol agent...

because I felt like I was part of a system

that is just cruel.

And I feel guilt-ridden

that I ever wore that uniform.

So, my purpose became telling the truth...

about the Border Patrol.

Eventually, I got hooked up

with the Southern Border

Community Coalition...

and Andrea asked me

to come in and she said,

"We want you to look at the Anastasio case

to see if you can see anything."

And Maria Puga, Anastasio's widow,

happened to be there.

I told her what I was gonna do

and I said, "Well, I don't know if

I'm gonna find anything."

And Maria threw her arms around me

and just started crying,

and said, "I knew all Border Patrol agents

couldn't be bad."

So, that's how I became involved.

Zoe.

Come here, Zozo.

Good girl, you're such a good girl.

You're such a good girl, Zozo.

Hi, Mr. Frey. My name is Jenn Budd.

I am a former agent with

the United States Border Patrol.

I was recently asked to look at

the Anastasio Hernndez case.

My understanding is you've done

quite a bit of reporting on it,

and there's something

that I don't think you all are aware of.

Did you ever encounter the acronym, CIT,

for Critical Incident Team?

I called a couple of agents I knew,

and one had 20 years

and was about to retire

and had never heard of it.

But, in the court filing,

in the federal court filing

of the civil trial,

there was one mention

in the entire investigation

by the defense attorney for the agents:

"I have reviewed the San Diego

Police Department investigation report

and the Border Patrol CIT Report,"

and I was like...

"What is this?"

The family didn't know

what the CIT report was,

the attorneys didn't know

what the CIT report was.

It's not just like

a human resources report?

I don't know.

But there's no forward-facing

information from the agency

about what a CIT team is.

I found one government document

and that's the Use of Force

Policy Handbook from 2010,

which says... "The RO," meaning

the supervisor in charge of the scene,

"may initiate a parallel investigation

into an incident

via a Critical Incident Team."

And I was like...

"Huh."

Because, in 2014, CBP and Border Patrol

come out with a new Use of Force Manual.

And CIT is removed

completely from in there.

They just got rid of it.

But they still exist?

I don't know.

You have to find agents

that are willing to come forward and talk.

Hi, I was trying to reach Mr. -- please?

Hi, my name is John Carlos Frey.

I am a journalist working on a story

about Anastasio Hernndez-Ro--

Hello?

My name is John Carlos Frey.

It's a case of about a dozen years ago

and I would really love

to talk to you about that.

Continue straight.

Hi.

Mr. --? I'm a journalist.

My name is John Carlos Frey.

We're doing a story

on Anastasio Hernndez-Rojas.

In 12 miles, exit right.

It's about Anastasio Hernndez-Rojas.

It's a case that happened

about a dozen years ago.

He was involved--

In 19 miles, turn left.

Hi, Mr. --. Hi.

-I'm a journalist.

-I know who you are.

We're not gonna talk,

so thank you for your time.

Okay.

Great. No one will talk to me.

How are you?

So, there's a couple of things.

One...

for me, Critical Incident Teams,

I'm not even sure that they exist.

Did you find anything out

other than this little bit of information?

How do you know a CIT team was sent?

A woman said she was shot in the head

by a Border Patrol agent in Nogales.

This woman's saying she still doesn't know

why that much force was used against her.

Here's ABC15 investigator Liliana Soto.

Hi, good morning. I wanted to see

if I could speak to Corporal Mintz?

-Mintz? Can I ask...

-Yeah.

There was an incident that

occurred in June of this year

of a woman getting shot in the head

by Border Patrol agents,

and I just wanted to ask

some questions about it.

-Okay. Give me one second, okay?

-Thank you so much.

Hi, I'm John. Nice to meet you.

Want me to wear a mask?

There was an incident here.

Border Patrol agents shot an individual

in the back of the head.

Do you know what I'm talking about?

But can you tell me

what protocol is for

a Border Patrol-related sh**ting?

So, you are just here

to tell me that you can't say anything?

He's not gonna talk to us.

Excuse me, are you Chief Bermudez?

Yes, sir.

We were trying to talk to an agent inside

-to just ask about a protocol...

-Okay.

...that you guys have

with the Border Patrol.

Are you at liberty to talk for a second?

-I can give you a short comment...

-Sure.

...but as far as to getting

into this conversation,

we don't discuss

other people's investigations

just because of professionalism

and the legal aspect of it.

-Okay.

-So, what was your question?

There was an incident a few months ago

where a woman was shot in the head

-by a Border Patrol agent.

-Mm-hmm.

It doesn't seem like

Nogales Police Department

was even involved at all.

-Right.

-So, how does that work?

Protocol has always been,

we've never actually done

investigations that had--

were related to any shootings

with Border Patrol

and that's something that's been set for,

you know, for as long as I can remember.

Do you know about CIT teams? C-I-T?

Oh, Critical Incident Team, yeah.

And what is their--

What is their reason for being on a scene?

I have no idea.

You're gonna have to ask them.

You know, I know what I know

and I don't know what I don't know, so...

Mr. Nez, my name is John Frey.

We're trying to get some information,

doing a report on your

Critical Incident Teams, CIT.

-I can't seem to find anything online.

-Okay.

-Okay. Do they exist?

-Alright?

Can you answer that part of it?

What I'm talking about?

Okay. So--

Thank you, sir.

A wake today for a young man

shot to death this week

by U.S. Border Patrol agents.

San Diego officials are investigating

the Christmas Eve death of a man

who was in Border Patrol custody.

More tensions along

U.S.-Mexico border tonight

following the sh**ting death

of a 15-year-old Mexican.

The 17-year-old was shot in the chest

by the U.S. Border Patrol.

Border Patrol says the boy was a threat,

throwing rocks across the iron fence.

Another fatal sh**ting

near El Paso, Texas.

Serving a warrant when an agent...

Shot and k*lled a mother of five

while she was in

the driver's seat of her car.

There are two very different accounts

of what happened just before the sh**ting.

Few answers have surfaced

in that case or others.

Border police say the agent

acted in self-defense.

How many cases have you looked through?

Probably at least 45 now.

I'm looking on PACER,

which has all the federal cases.

Vast majority of time,

it's a civil case...

and I read through

these cases from the '90s.

It's always the agent claims

that they threw rocks at 'em,

wasn't hurt or wasn't hit,

but had to sh**t and k*ll 'em.

It's the same story over and over and over

and over again.

So, you're looking at cases

that have "CIT, CIIT."

Or an "SET," yeah,

for Sector Evidence Team.

-But it's the same thing, right?

-Yeah.

And every time in the civil cases,

you see local officials

and the attorneys are like...

"So, you didn't have

control of this scene,

"and then when you got there,

you just relied on the Border Patrol

to tell you what the evidence was,

and they go, 'Yeah.'"

You believe anytime there's

an incident along the U.S.-Mexico border,

-a CIT team is probably involved?

-Yeah.

They're in everything.

Tonight, a little-known unit

within the U.S. Border Patrol

is being accused of interfering

in fatal encounters

involving its agents.

Human rights advocates calling

for a congressional hearing

on what they call "an off-the-books

investigative unit

in the U.S. Border Patrol."

John Carlos Frey, can you talk

about the new information

that you're uncovering

about these shadow police units

within U.S. Border Patrol?

They are preparing evidence,

they are doctoring evidence,

they are tampering with evidence,

they are deleting evidence,

so that any use of force is warranted.

That is what CIT is doing.

This is how it happens.

They collect only the evidence

that supports them

and then the evidence

that doesn't support them,

they muck up and nobody can take the case.

And this is designed, systematically,

to alleviate responsibility

and liability for the agency.

Thirty-five years of this...

it's the biggest secret

the Border Patrol has.

They don't even have

an authority to exist.

There is not a police agency,

whether it's a municipal police agency

or a federal police agency,

that gets to investigate itself

without any oversight, and that's what

the Border Patrol is doing right now.

John Carlos Frey, we want to thank you

for being with us.

Investigative journalist

reported extensively on immigration

on the Mexico border.

-I'm John Carlos Frey.

-How are you?

Senator, thanks for

your commitment on this.

Pleasure, thank you.

-Do you mind if we take off masks?

-Sure.

Like, if what...

is being suggested here were to

be happening in a local police department,

a local sheriff's department,

right, there'd be national outrage.

This absolutely needs to be looked into.

Between this and

some of the reports and...

recent press coverage,

there's certainly a lotta

questions that need to be asked.

Like, what are the policies?

What are the protocols?

What are the procedures

within the department?

So, it's not like

an Internal Affairs department,

where they're just taking

a look at employee behavior,

it's therefore the mitigation

of civil liability.

And we're sure that

these investigative teams

are everywhere along the border...

but to my knowledge,

CIT shouldn't exist

because the Border Patrol

doesn't have the authority,

which is granted by Congress,

to have an investigative body.

We can't find any thread in Congress

where they have approval,

where they have funding.

Yeah, this...

this is serious.

The hearing will come to order.

Today we're holding the first

Department of Homeland Security

oversight hearing since January 16, 2018.

We welcome the Secretary

of Homeland Security,

the Honorable Ale Mayorkas,

to testify before the committee.

And with that, I turn to Senator Padilla.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Number of questions.

Mr. Secretary, thank you for being here.

I wanna ask about some disturbing reports

around the conduct and actions

of Custom and Border Protection agents.

A recent letter sent by

the Southern Border Communities Coalition

raises significant concerns

about Critical Incident Teams

within the agency that are interfering

with law enforcement

investigation of CBP agents.

According to the letter, these teams

have been operating for decades

and investigating their own agents

without authority.

Secretary Mayorkas, what measures has

the Department of Homeland Security taken

towards addressing serious abuses of power

surrounding these Critical Incident Teams?

So, a few things, if I may.

First of all, I am immensely proud

to work alongside the men and women

of U.S. Customs and Border Protection,

and the misconduct of one,

does not define the heroism and integrity

of the great majority

of the men and women.

We do not tolerate misconduct

in any part of our workforce,

whether that's U.S. Customs

and Border Protection

or any corner of

the Department of Homeland Security,

and we will root out

misconduct wherever it occurs.

My name is James Tomsheck.

I spent eight years with Internal Affairs

in the Border Patrol.

Prior to my arrival,

there was no Internal Affairs

operations at CBP,

allowing the Border Patrol

to operate for many years,

essentially not being

monitored for accountability.

So, it was established

that I would head up the office

and address all integrity-related issues

throughout the agency.

But upon my arrival,

I was taken aback to find

how resistant the Border Patrol was

to having an Office of Internal Affairs

that would review their activity.

Unfortunately,

the Office of Internal Affairs

was viewed with disdain

and mistrust by Border Patrol.

I was not welcomed because I had

a law enforcement mindset,

whereas they consider

themselves more paramilitary.

Law enforcement officers

are taught to subdue,

but the military mindset

has you prepared to attack

and overcome your enemy with deadly force.

And every time we had

deadly force incidents,

we'd have the same discussion.

I would say, "Hey,

you're a law enforcement entity.

"You have an obligation

to protect the public,

even if those individuals

aren't American citizens."

But I could not get them

to change their mindset...

and one of their stock responses to me

would be, "You've never worn green,

so you don't understand."

In the summer of 2010,

after the as*ault on Mr. Hernndez-Rojas,

I was briefed on the incident thoroughly

by Internal Affairs

agents from the San Diego Field Office.

The Internal Affairs agents confirmed

that Mr. Hernndez-Rojas

was face down on the ground,

handcuffed behind his back

at the time that he was tasered.

We knew this because Border Patrol

had their Critical Incident on the ground, collecting the facts...

and they were reporting

directly to the chief in San Diego,

who reported

to the chief of Border Patrol,

who reported to the deputy commissioner

from Customs and Border Protection.

After I felt we had

established facts with the case,

the deputy commissioner,

at the time, summoned me to his office...

and he gave me a direct order

to submit false reports

indicating that Mr. Hernndez-Rojas

was standing unrestrained

and actively resisting arrest

when he was tasered.

But the other problem with

the Hernndez investigation

was the stonewalling of information.

We found out that

the Critical Incident used an administrative subpoena

to illegally obtain the autopsy report

before anybody in law enforcement had it.

And then, Border Patrol CIT team members

used that document

to begin to construct...

a story around the event

for investigators from other agencies...

that would support the idea that it was

an appropriate and legal use of force.

At that point in time,

I was under the belief

that Mr. Hernndez-Rojas

lost his life, in part,

because he had ingested large

amounts of methamphetamine.

It was years later,

that I learned that

what had been identified

as methamphetamine in the autopsy report,

was possibly medication that

had been administered to him

while efforts were being made

to revive him.

It has to be said that many agents

are caring persons who execute

their always difficult mission

in a way that is humane...

but, unfortunately, many do not.

And that includes persons at the highest

level of Border Patrol leadership.

Absolutely not,

I've seen those same allegations.

They were not--

There's no cover-up

in that case whatsoever.

Again, there were multiple agencies

that investigated that case.

I was just asked about

some of the subpoenas recently.

They're all reviewed

by multiple levels of lawyers

before we ever do anything like that.

It was literally just documenting

exactly what happened.

But I'm not gonna comment

with ongoing litigation

about was every single person's actions

appropriate or not appropriate.

That's what the investigative

organizations are there for.

Even as a chief here,

I stayed off to the side

of that investigation,

we provided information,

we provided interviews,

but I stay out of the determination

of whether it was appropriate

or not appropriate.

Every time anybody dies

or anybody gets serious injury,

it weighs on me heavily,

but those are allegations

that you just stated.

For the many families who are listening,

the Border Patrol cover-up unit

is a crime unto itself.

They took lives and they took hope,

and that cannot stand.

We are here to send a clear message

that no one is above the law,

that even if you wear a badge,

you too are subject to the law.

We are asking to send a clear message

that this can no longer happen,

and we are asking the question,

who will control Border Patrol?

After months of criticism,

the Biden administration

is eliminating Critical Incident Teams

within the U.S. Border Patrol.

They are getting rid

of their special units,

which have been accused

for decades of covering up

crimes committed by the agency.

Today is a day to remember.

We know of no other agency

in the U.S. government

that gets away with

what this agency gets away with,

and we could all see with our own eyes,

today was a victory...

but it won't be the last.

This week, the Inter-American

Commission on Human Rights

will hear for the first time ever

a case against a U.S.

law enforcement agency.

Attorneys say this will be

a landmark case.

A future decision could set

a precedent for use of force

within the nation's largest

law enforcement agency.

Honorable commissioners,

U.S. law and CBP policy

permits acts of force

that would be considered

excessive under Inter-American standards.

We request that the Commission

instruct the United States

to amend use of force laws and policies

for violations

of the American Declaration,

including Articles 1, 2, 18, 25, and 26.

Alright, so...

we're gonna talk about

international human rights law.

This is a case about

impunity at the border

and it's a case about

all the ways government officials

covered up the truth.