Since at least 1987, the U.S. Border Patrol has been covering up wrongdoing by its agents with specialized teams meant to mitigate civil and criminal liability, and this is illegal. Known by several names, including Critical Incident Teams (BPCITs), these shadow units work at the behest of the local sector Border Patrol chief, and they have interfered in cases, denying justice to victims of their violence and to family members looking for answers.
In January, policymakers in Washington asked Commissioner Chris Magnus of Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the Border Patrol’s parent agency, for documents related to these secret teams. The House Committees on Homeland Security and Oversight and Reform wrote in their letter to Commissioner Magnus that “Congress has not provided the U.S. Border Patrol with specific authority to conduct investigations of its agents’ misconduct, and the CBP Commissioner has not publicly delegated this authority to Border Patrol.” In other words, the BPCITs are operating outside the law without congressional authorization to conduct investigations.
In addition to this, a bicameral request to the U.S. Government Accountability Office is also asking for a review of BPCITs’ roles and responsibilities. These efforts are good news, because they will shed light into Border Patrol’s secret teams that have interfered in police investigations and allowed them to operate with impunity. There is no current publicly available information about the BPCITs role within the Border Patrol’s or CBP’s structure.
The Southern Border Communities Coalition (SBCC), a multi-border state coalition, has spearheaded the call for the investigations. In San Diego, a BPCIT team tampered with evidence and destroyed video of the 2010 brutal beating and Tasering of long-time resident Anastasio Hernandez Rojas, who succumbed to his injuries. The San Diego Immigrant Rights Consortium is now asking San Diego’s District Attorney to investigate and prosecute the Border Patrol agents involved in covering up the details of Anastasio’s killing.
At a press conference calling on San Diego’s District Attorney to take action, Alliance San Diego attorney Michelle Celleri stated, “[BPCITs] altered government documents, interfered with the investigation and withheld critical information from San Diego Police Department. Additionally they provided false evidence, they provided video footage with the wrong timestamp that was inaccurate, and when they asked Border Patrol to provide them with the right footage it had already been destroyed.”
Anastasio Hernando Rojas’s case is not an isolated incident. Where over 150 people have died at the hands of Border Patrol agents in the last 10 years, the existence of the BPCITs raise questions about what influence they have had in obstructing justice when they have interfered in the investigations. This would include dozens of vehicle pursuit chases that have ended in loss of life and cases where Border Patrol agents have fired their weapons across the border, striking teenagers.
The BPCITs have allowed Border Patrol agents to get away egregious behavior for over three decades, including murder, as was the case with Anastasio Hernandez Rojas. They must be abolished, the agents prosecuted, and cases where they interfered must be re-opened to include a full review of any evidence that was purposefully suppressed, altered, and concealed.
Pedro Ríos is a human rights advocate employed since 2003 by the American Friends Service Committee, where he directs its US/Mexico Border Program. A San Diego native, Pedro has worked on immigrant rights and border issues for more than 25 years.
