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Thursday, May 21, 1998

Amnesty, immigrant rights groups decry abuse by INS

By MADELINE BARO / Associated Press Writer

McALLEN, Texas (AP) -- Armando DeLeon teared up when he recounted his son's two-day ordeal to get home after he was deported to Mexico despite being a U.S. citizen.

Romeo DeLeon was stopped at a Harlingen bus station by a Border Patrol agent who demanded to see his papers. Romeo DeLeon showed the agent his Social Security card and photo identification. The agent determined that the documents were no good.

Later, after he was denied a phone call and asked to sign a paper he didn't read, Romeo DeLeon was sent to Matamoros. It took two days before he snuck back across the border on foot.

Now the man is suing the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and his father says the case is indicative of an overall problem.

"I want the abuse to stop," Armando DeLeon said at a news conference and rally Wednesday in honor of Esequiel Hernandez, killed a year ago by U.S. troops patroling the border. "Please, no more abuse."

Armando DeLeon was joined by human and immigrant rights advocates, including representatives from Amnesty International, the Immigration Law Enforcement Monitoring Project, and the American Friends Service Committee's Immigration and Law Enforcement Monitoring Project.

Amnesty gave out copies of its report on human rights abuses by INS agents along the U.S.-Mexico border. The report was first released in Mexico Tuesday night.

"We are here today ... to send a strong message," said Kerry McGrath, deputy director for Amnesty International's regional office in Atlanta. "We want these officials to know that the world is watching."

The Immigration Law Enforcement Monitoring Project also released a report that documented 331 abuses by immigration officials from January 1997 to April 1998.

The group said the number of abuses has increased since the implementation of Operation Rio Grande, which funneled more Border Patrol Agents to the border, starting with Brownsville.

ILEMP documented 139 incidents of abuse from January to August 1997 -- the kickoff of Operation Rio Grande -- and 192 abuses from September 1997 to April 1998.

The abuses included physical and verbal abuse, sexual harassment, denial of due process and seizure or destruction of property.

Amelia Acosta, director of the Centro de Apoyo a Migrantes in Reynosa, Mexico, also said her group has documented 300 cases of human rights abuses from April 1997 to March 1998.

"(Immigrants) are treated like delinquents or murderers, not like people who need to survive," she said.

Ms. Acosta said some U.S. citizens are among those who have been victimized.

"Their sin is looking (Mexican) and the same happens with legal residents or citizens descended from (Mexicans)," she said.

Border Patrol McAllen sector chief Joe Garza reasserted Wednesday that few allegations of abuse are made against his agents and even fewer, if any, are substantiated.

"We are not criminals," he said. "We are law enforcement officers."

Garza said agents are obligated to report abuse accusations, and all complaints made to his office are forwarded for investigation.

He disputed the image of the Border Patrol outlined in the reports, which said agents are routinely abusive toward immigrants.

"That is not the Border Patrol I work for," said Garza, a 29-year agency veteran. "The Border Patrol is not the enemy."

As the advocates presented their reports across the street from the Border Patrol's McAllen sector headquarters, demonstrators carried flags and placards on the sidewalk.

Rita Escobedo of Mission joined the United Farm Workers in protesting Wednesday, yelling and singing at passing cars while waving the red union flag. Born in Mexico, Ms. Escobedo has been a U.S. citizen for three years.

"Now that I'm a citizen, I'm protesting on behalf of immigrants," she said. "They shouldn't abuse us. We're people, not animals."

Little mention was made Wednesday of Esequiel Hernandez, the 18-year-old from Redford, Texas, who was shot and killed by a Marine patrolling the border on May 20, 1997. Cpl. Clemente Banuelos, who said he shot Hernandez in self-defense, was cleared by two grand juries.

Maria Jimenez, of the American Friends Service Committee, said Hernadez's death spurred a "fight to uphold democratic institutions."

"The pain hasn't gone away (for the Hernandez family) because they have seen no justice," she said.