A Border Patrol agent has been charged by a federal grand jury with second-degree murder in a cross-border shooting incident.
Agent Lonnie Swartz is accused of killing Elena Rodriguez during a rock-throwing incident near Nogales, Arizona.
The Border Patrol has said that Elena Rodriguez was among a group of rock throwers endangering agents’ lives. His family insists the boy was walking home from a basketball game with friends and was not armed or hurling rocks.
The Border Patrol Union on Thursday criticized the indictment: “Sadly, our agents and all law enforcement officers operate in a world of political agendas and armchair quarterbacking. But our jobs are dangerous, and the decisions we make every day determine if we will return home safely to our families. We ask the public to withhold judgment about agent Swartz while the legal process unfolds.”
Swartz also faces a federal civil rights lawsuit in the death of the teen, who was in Nogales, Sonora, on Oct. 10, 2012, when Swartz fired from Nogales, Arizona.
The Mexican government said Thursday that it “welcomed” the decision to indict the agent.
Rock throwers have attacked agents more than 1,700 times since 2010, according to the agency. The Border Patrol has used deadly force more than 40 times in rock-throwing incidents, resulting in 10 deaths.
This indictment overturns previous rulings that illegals seeking to break immigration law and enter the U.S. illegally are not protected by the U.S. Constitution.
In a similar case in Texas, a federal appeals court ruled that a teen killed in Mexico by a border agent in El Paso, Texas, was not protected by the Constitution.
Border Patrol agent Jesus Mesa Jr. shot 15-year-old Sergio Adrian Hernandez Guereca in 2010 near a bridge between El Paso and Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua.
Authorities said Mesa was trying to arrest immigrants who had illegally crossed into the country when rock throwers attacked him. Mesa fired his weapon across the Rio Grande, striking the teen twice.
A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals originally said Hernandez Guereca’s family could sue Mesa. But the full court overturned that ruling in April.
Border Patrol agents have a tremendously difficult job. Now, thanks to federal prosecutors, these agents will have to think twice about protecting themselves from aggressive illegal border crossers and most likely make it far easier for illegals to simply cross the border with impunity.
Lets hurry up and usher in the age of Trump, so we can defend our country justifiably again….crap, and this is CRAP, such as this will be all but a bad leftist memory… we can look back and say “gee look how stupid this was.”
a boy named Elena? Did I read that right?
I guess it’s not bad enough that the liberals let the ILLEGAL ALIENS enter the country with no consequence, now border patrol agents can’t even defend their own lives from the rock assaults brought upon then by the scum in Mexico that haven’t (yet) ILLEGALLY crossed the border to disrupt the American way of life. A rock can damn sure be a deadly weapon (Cain and Abel) they should be “allowed” to shoot all the ones assaulting them and endangering their lives no matter what side of the border they are on without the fear of prosecution. But the liberals don’t like consequences for “their” future ILLEGAL voters.
The Border Patrol Agent should not be charged with a damn thing. I think we need to remove President Obama and put him down at the border to patrol it and when they throw rock or shoot bullets at him and he does anything to protect himself charge him with murder. President Obama has violated the US Constitution and also has committed treason against our country time for him to be tried and sent to prison. Why do we even have a border patrol anyway Obama doesn’t enforce immigration law anyway…he just lets them keep coming in the United States…the border patrol is a joke anyway…their hands are tied and the Federal Government won’t enforce immigration laws anyway…look how many criminals illegals their are in the United States? Many and Obama doesn’t care. Let him do without the Secret Service and White House Security and send the illegals criminals up there and see how long the President would last. See if he would still fill the same way about immigration if they were throwing rocks and bottles at him (The President) He get to hide behind the Secret Service and the White House Police. He doesn’t have to worry about protection like the rest of us citizens do. And now he want to violate the 2nd amendment and take away our guns and rifles. Go buy guns and ammo now it is highly likely you will need them when Obama tries to declare Marshall Law and orders his goons to round up the American Citizen, Christians, etc and put them in armed FEMA/Concentration camps. Without your arms and ammo you have no way to protect yourself. Remember when Marshall Law is declared you will have no rights according to the Executive Order he has. You will be at the mercy of the Federal Government and they could do anything they want…starve you to death, beat you to death, shoot you and kill you etc. Remember all the bullets the 40 plus agency bought up (the Dept. Of Homeland Security just purchased a billion rounds or more of ammo) And those thousands of body bags the Federal Government purchased. When they get you into those FEMA/Concentration and there is not enough food for everybody then what? Will our Federal Government pick and choose who to kill? Will those bodies bags be used to put the people they decide to kill in? Think it can’t happen here,,,think again. Remember Adolph Hitler and the thousand upon thousands of Jews they killed by gassing them in made to look like showers. With Marshall Law in place and all your rights stripped away…yes it damn sure could happen again. Need I Say More?
You took my words away from me. I was thinking, exactly, what you have said. Thank you, it gives me hope. And yeah, VOTE TRUMP! He is our only hope.
I’m not giving up hope, and neither should anyone who wants constitutional governance restored.
This is the end for America…Illegals are protected no matter what they do, they are seen as voters for the wrong party and we will pay heavily for it, get ready to lose our freedoms and Obama will be in charge …. That is a fate worse than hell!