In San Diego, CA, an illegal immigrant who lived in the United States for 27 years was killed after a border guard shot him with a Taser gun. Anastacio Hernández Rojas, a 42-year-old construction worker and father of five children, was deported to Mexico last week after a run-in with local police. He was trying to re-enter the country when border agents arrested him and prepared to send Hernández back to Mexico. Media accounts say Rojas struggled with border guards, prompting one of them to use a Taser to subdue him. The electric shock allegedly caused Hernández to suffer a fatal heart attack

 

Following the Hernández controversy, a border patrol officer shot and killed a 15-year-old boy standing on a bridge in El Paso, TX, that straddles the border between the two countries. Authorities claim the boy, Sergio Adrian Hernández Guereca, may have been throwing rocks at officers who were detaining illegal immigrants nearby. He was on the Mexican side of the border when he was shot.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Man Shot With Taser in Fight at Border Dies (by Leslie Berestein and Kristina Davis, San Diego Union-Tribune)

Death of Illegal Immigrant at San Diego Crossing Prompts Outcry (by Richard Marosi, Los Angeles Times)

Mexico Demands Answers about Shooting by U.S. Agent (by Robin Emmott, Reuters)

Border Agent Shoots and Kills 14-Year-Old Boy on US Side of International Bridge (Raw Story)