Mexico demands inquiry into U.S. border killing

Twenty-two-year-old Oscar Abraham Garcia of Tijuana, Mexico, was shot and killed by two federal agents at the U.S.- Mexico border crossing in San Ysidro, Calif., on May 18. The shooting took place after Border Patrol and U.S. customs agents surrounded his black sport utility vehicle, which police claim was under surveillance on suspicion of immigrant smuggling.

This tragedy took place a few days after Bush gave a May 15 talk to announce plans to further militarize the Mexican-U.S. border by stationing 12,000 Border Patrol agents and 6,000 National Guard troops to try to stop undocumented workers from coming to the U.S. to look for work and to be with their families.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents claim they began following the black SUV after someone reported seeing it pick up suspected undocumented immigrants near the U.S. side of the Otay Mesa border crossing, according to Lt. Kevin Rooney of the San Diego Police Department.

Border Patrol officers in an unmarked vehicle tracked the SUV as it drove a few miles west and then south toward the San Ysidro border crossing between San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico. Customs and Border Protection agents blocked all southbound lanes at the border, then surrounded Garcia’s car as it was forced to a stop.

After being surrounded Garcia refused to identify himself or get out, and when agents smashed his vehicle’s window with a baton, he accelerated. According to San Diego Police Lt. Jeff Sferra, it was the fact that Garcia moved in the direction of five U.S. agents blocking his path and “nearly pinned an agent standing next to the vehicle” that justified the shooting.

Still the fact remains that no agents or police were injured in the shooting. Garcia himself was not armed. Neither were any of his passengers. In addition, at the time of the shooting the vehicle was heading south on Interstate 5, thus going toward Mexico. However, investigators were able to offer no explanation for that, instead focusing on demonizing the surviving passengers.

Five male passengers were taken into custody. Reports from police indicated that all were undocumented. Later reports alleged that some of the passengers told investigators that Garcia and a 17-year-old boy in the vehicle were both immigrant smugglers. Authorities also identified one of the suspects arrested at the border as having “several” prior arrests for immigrant smuggling, but said he has never been formally charged with the alleged crime. They have detained the juvenile but his name has not been released. The remaining three people in the vehicle at the time of the shooting are being interviewed and could be held as “material witnesses” in the case against the two suspects.

According to Alberto Lozano, a spokesperson for the Mexican consulate in San Diego, the Mexican government has called for an investigation of its own into the shooting. “We asked for an official investigation of what happened,” Lozano said. “We want to know why they shot this person.”

Sadly, the question why and many other questions surrounding this unnecessary death continue to go unanswered while reports from the mainstream media focus on the “terrible” inconvenience faced by drivers who were stuck in traffic due to the nine-hour closure of what has been deemed the busiest border crossing in the world.