(CONTENT WARNING: 2010 video of Anastasio Rojas beating by US border agents)
Faculty and students of Berkeley Law’s International Human Rights Law clinic have brought the case of the 2010 killing of Anastasio Rojas by U.S. border agents before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. It’s the first time a case about an extrajudicial killing by U.S. law enforcement has been examined by an international human rights body.
Prof. Roxanna Altholz, co-director of the clinic and Berkeley alumnus, is leading the case alongside her former Berkeley classmate, Andrea Guerrero, Executive Director of the non-profit, Alliance San Diego.
Representing Rojas’ family, Guerrero and Altholz, along with her clinic students, seek a declaration by the commission, an arm of the Organization of American States (OAS), that the U.S. government violated Rojas’ rights under the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, adopted in 1948 by OAS member states.
In 2010, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers beat and tased Rojas, a 42-year-old father of five, while he was attempting to reenter the U.S. to rejoin his family after having been deported. He later died of his injuries during the beating. The agents involved were not prosecuted, although the beating was videotaped. Despite numerous such border killings, no agents have ever been prosecuted.
The commission’s purpose is to hold OAS members accountable for human rights violations, assigning systemic and structural changes the state must take to insure the violation doesn’t happen again. The commission’s upcoming decision, expected in early 2024, would set a precedent and potentially bring about important changes in law enforcement policies.
For full story, visit: news.berkeley.edu
Video by Roxanne Makasdjian and Alan Toth
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