$1M Settlement Reached By Family Of Anastacio Hernández Rojas Who Was Brutally Beaten and Murdered By U.S. Border Patrol Agents

Hernández Rojas was brutally beaten and murdered by U.S. Border Protection Agents in 2010.

By H. Nelson Goodson

Hispanic News Network U.S.A.

March 3, 2017

San Diego, California - The family of of Anastacio Hernández Rojas, 42, an undocumented immigrant who was brutally beaten and tasered multiple times by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents and later died at a hospital have settled the lawsuit for $1M to avoid another three years of court room litigation. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (ICHR) in Washington, D.C. sued the U.S. for the torture and homicide of Hernández Rojas. In November 2015, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) decided not to prosecute or file felony murder charges against eight U.S. Border Patrol agents, Customs and Border Protection agents including four supervisors who watched and encouraged the deadly abuse of Hernández Rojas at the San Ysidro Port-of-entry crossing for lack of evidence. 

The DOJ said, that the agents involved used reasonable force to subdue Hernández Rojas. It was later discovered that 15 to 25 border patrol agents participated while others watched Hernández Rojas get beaten, kicked and tased repeatedly while in handcuffs at the U.S. border crossing.
Hernández Rojas pleaded for help and for the agents to stop beating and who were repeatedly tasering him as dozens of witnesses watched, video recorded took pictures of the incident from the border bridge crossing.
The agents later confiscated witnesses cellphones, deleted videos and photos to cover up the brutal beating. The agents didn't even file reports that at least 30 witnesses were present during the incident. The witnesses were also dispersed from the scene in an attempt to cover up the brutal beating and homicide of Hernández Rojas. Only three witnesses were later interviewed by San Diego police who investigated the case.
A cellphone video later surfaced showing the border patrol agents beating and tasering Hernández Rojas multiple times who pleaded for help. 
The ICHR is the only human rights international commission that has jurisdiction and authority to hear an individual complaint against the U.S. for human rights violations.

In an interview with Democracy Now, Roxanna Altholz, an international human rights lawyer and scholar, including an associate director at the University of California-Berkeley's International Human Rights Law Clinic said, that since Hernández Rojas murder in 2010 by border patrol agents, at least 40 to 50 undocumented immigrants have been killed by agents and none of the border patrol agents involved have been held accountable or brought to justice.
The San Diego Medical Examiner's Office classified Hernández Rojas death as a homicide. Hernández Rojas autopsy revealed that he had five broken ribs, had suffered from a lack of oxygen to his brain for 8 minutes causing brain dead as a result of a heart attack attributed to the beating and taser's electrical shocks, had abrasions/contusions to the face, arms and legs including a large hematoma.
Judge M. James Lorenz of the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of California on September 29, 2014 determined that the U.S. Border Patrol agents identified as Phillip Krasielwicz, Gabriel Ducoing and Derrick Llewellyn; Immigration Enforcement Agents Harinzo Naraisnesingh and Andre Piligrino; Customs and Border Protection Officers Kurt Sauer and agent Allen Boutwell; Border Patrol Supervisors Ishmael Finn, Guillermo E. Avila and Edward C. Caliri, and Custom and Border Protection Supervisor Ramon De Jesús were responsible or contributed to Hernández Rojas death in 2010.

Shocking news video shows Mexican immigrant Anastacio Hernández Rojas tased and being beaten resulting in his death by multiple U.S. Border Patrol agents while hog tied and hands behind his back in May 2010. https://youtu.be/5JCmHX1pVCU