On February 21 the Supreme Court heard arguments in Hernández v. Mesa, a suit by the parents of a
Mexican teenager killed by a Border Patrol agent as the unarmed boy stood on the Mexican side of the border. The U.S. government claims its agents have the right to gun down foreign civilians inside their own country if the agents happen to “feel threatened.” Meanwhile, Border Patrol agents continue to violate the privacy rights of people entering the U.S. In a recent incident, they insisted on searching the cellphone of a U.S. citizen who works for NASA; in the process they may have compromised the security of another government agency.
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| CBP victim Sergio Hernandez. Photo: AP |
Two memos released on February indicate that Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly is working to expand the size and the powers of this obviously lawless agency. –TPOI editor.
The Border Is A Constitution-Free Zone For Agents Who Shoot And Kill. But Maybe Not For Long.
A Mexican teen’s death will force the Supreme Court to decide if there can be justice for cross-border violence.
By Roque Planas and Cristian Farias, Huffington Post
February 20, 2017
CIUDAD JUÁREZ, Mexico — María Guadalupe Güereca wanted to hold her son.
Instead, Mexican police held her back from the crime scene. So she watched him from above the canal that carries the Rio Grande between the American city of El Paso, Texas, and the Mexican city of Ciudad Juárez.
Her 15-year-old son, Sergio Hernández, had been playing with a group of boys along the river, when U.S. Border Patrol agent Jesús Mesa Jr. went to apprehend them, apparently viewing them either as drug smugglers or people trying to cross the border illegally. He grabbed one of the boys on the U.S. side of the river canal, as the rest fled. Sensing that someone was throwing rocks, he turned toward Sergio, who had taken cover behind the bridge piling on the Mexican side of the river, and shot him in the face.[...]
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A US-born NASA scientist was detained at the border until he unlocked his phone
By Loren Grush, CNBC
February 12, 2017
Two weeks ago, Sidd Bikkannavar flew back into the United States after spending a few weeks abroad in South America. An employee of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Bikkannavar had been on a personal trip, pursuing his hobby of racing solar-powered cars. He had recently joined a Chilean team, and spent the last weeks of January at a race in Patagonia.
Bikkannavar is a seasoned international traveller — but his return home to the US this time around was anything but routine. Bikkannavar left for South America on January 15th, under the Obama Administration. He flew back from Santiago, Chile to the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas on Monday, January 30th, just over a week into the Trump Administration.
Bikkannavar says he was detained by US Customs and Border Patrol and pressured to give the CBP agents his phone and access PIN.[...]
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