BY PAT SMITH
A U.S. border cop pointed his gun at Martin Garcia Martinez on May 28, 1994, as Garcia knelt with his hands on his head. Garcia had just crossed from Mexico into California. After threatening his family and severely beating his brother, the Border Patrol agent shot the 30-year-old immigrant in the stomach. Garcia died six days later. The treatment border police dished out to this young immigrant and his family is not unusual.

A recent Human Rights Watch/Americas report documents this and dozens of other assaults by U.S. cops at the border with Mexico. The 43-page study, entitled "Crossing the Line," is based on a July 1994 fact-finding trip to the California and Arizona borders with Mexico and refers to cases in the group's two earlier reports. Human Rights Watch also points out that there has been no discernible change in the practices of Border Patrol cops since the earlier investigations and recommendations.

"U.S. Border Patrol agents are committing serious human rights violations, including unjustified shootings, rape, and beatings, while enjoying virtual impunity for their actions," states "Crossing the Line." Immigration officials told the human rights organization that only one agent, Thomas Watson stationed in Nogales, Arizona, was ever fired for breaking agency rules or using excessive force despite more than a decade of well-documented violations.

"The Clinton administration has abdicated its responsibility to correct the ongoing abuse problem," Human Rights Watch notes. The report uncovers injustices "that appeared to be tolerated by Border Patrol management."

Agent Michael Elmer, who fatally shot Dario Miranda Valenzuela in the back, left him in the desert and tried to cover up the killing, was acquitted on state murder charges in December 1992. A year later, an Arizona court found him not guilty of violating Miranda's civil rights. Elmer had been charged earlier with firing on a group of undocumented workers, wounding Francisco Salgado-Munoz.

Fellow agent Luis Esteves was accused of making sexually explicit, harassing telephone calls to a woman he stopped at a checkpoint north of Calexico, California. Esteves was not punished, but transferred to the Calexico border crossing where he was arrested twice for rape.

Several women described acts of kidnapping and rape by uniformed and nonuniformed border agents to the Human Rights Watch investigators. Others detailed brutal beatings that required hospitalization. The victims were not informed of their right to file a complaint against the agents.

The report urges both the Clinton administration and Congress to apply international human rights standards in the United States. It also urges legal reforms, which would allow immigrants who suffer abuses at the border to obtain justice for crimes committed by U.S. agents.  
 
 
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