08/30/19 08/30/19 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this i is democracy now!w! things, the trump administration is continuing to separate families of the border. now they want to indefinitely detained families and they're trying to have an asylum ban at the southern border, which would mean no one can apply for asylum if they transited through any other country. we have blocked that ban and we're going to continue fighting the administration is now taking it to the u.s. supreme court.

the stakes are very high. amy: as the trump administration again tries to push through a rule that would effectively ban all central american migrants from seeking asylum in the u.s., we look at the latest deadly government policies targeting immigrants, from trump's plan to end a program that allows severely sick immigrants to stay in the u.s. for treatment to ongoing family separation. we'll speak with lee gelernt, deputy director of the aclu immigrants' rights project. then as the second border patrol agent this month pleads guilty to assaulting an undocumented immigrant, we look at the devastating death of jose antonio elena rodriguez. killed on mexican soil in 2012 -- more than six years after the killing, but the family is stilill waiting for justice. >> it is so frustrating and it makes me so angry knowing that a person can stick his hand in

there and kill mexican children with impunity. lonnie happened to swartz. he is still free. he still has a job. he left my family completely destroyed. amy: in the latest from our series death and resistance at the u.s.-mexico border, we go to mexico to speak with jose antonio's mother and grandmother. the family hopes a u.s. supreme court case this fall may give them another chance at justice. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goododman. florida has declared a state of emergency in all 67 counties as hurricane dorian continues to gain strength in the atlantic. the national hurricane center warns the storm may hit south florida on monday as a category 4 hurricane with winds as high as 130 miles per hour. on thursday, president trump

announced he would cancel a trip to poland in order to stay in washington due to the hurricane. vice president mike pence is going instead. the justice department's inspector general has determined former fbi director james comey violated agency policies by disclosing sensitive information to the press, but the justice department has decided not to prosecute him. the investigation centered on comey's decision to leak a memo in which he detailed how president trump had asked him to drop the fbi's investigation into michael flynn, the president's then national security advisor. in colombia, a group of former farc rebels have announced they are taking up arms again, accusing the colombian government of failing to live up to the 2016 peace accord that ended 50 years of fighting. in a video, former farc commander ivan marquez -- who helped negotiate the peace deal -- said a new phase of armed struggle wasas beginning.

,> when we signed the agreement we did it with the conviction that it is possible to change the lives of the humbled and the dispossessed. at the state has not fulfilled even the most important of the obligagations, that is to guarantee the life of its citizens and particularly to prevent the murder for political reasons. amy: colombian president ivan duque has vowed to hunt down the rebel commmmanders whore takingg up arms. according to the institute for development and peace studies, 702 social leaders and human rights defenders and 135 former farc guerrilla members have been killed in colombia since 2016. india's crackdown on kashmir is intensifying nearly four weeks after prime minister modi revoked the special status of the territory. earlier today, indian authorities ordered kashmiris to stay off the streets as new barricades went up. the internet and phone lines remain down. as many as 4 4000 peoplele, including many political leaders, remain detained.

the bbc is reporting indian security forces are being accused of beating and torturing residents of kashmir. one kashmir resident told the bbc -- "they beat every part of my body. when we fainted they gave us electric shocks to bring us back. when they hit us with sticks and we screamed, they sealed our mouth with mud." in related news, nationwide rallies were held in pakistan today to ship solidarity with the people of kashmir. in yemen, the united arab emirates is being accused of bombing saudi-backed yemeni forces and killing as many as 40 people as a new front in the yemen war intensifies. for years, the uae and the saudis were on the same side as they targeted houthi rebels. but now the gulf states find themselves on opposing sides in a separate battle for the control of aden. the uae has been backing a group of separatists while the saudis back the government forces. in hong kong, three prominent

democracy actctivists were arrested eararlier today a aheaf a major planned protest on saturday. joshua wong and agnes chow were arrested on suspicion of unlawful assembly and held for several hours before being released on bail. shortly after his release, wong addressed reporters. >> [indiscernible] amy: a third prominent hong kong activist, andy chan, was also arrested today. he is accused of rioioting and assaulting an officer. meanwhile, reuters has revealed the chinese central government rejected a proposal earlier this summer by carrie lam, the chief executive of hong kong, to diffuse the protest movement. lam proposed withdrawing a controversial extradition bill but china ordered her not to yield to any of the protester demands. in a setback to opponents of brexit, a judge in scotland has refused to block british prime minister boris johnson's plan to suspend parliament next month.

johnson's move leaves lawmakers who oppose a no-deal exit from the european union with limited time to pass legislation supporting any other measures. opposition leader jeremy corbyn vowed to challenge johnson's plan. >> we will be back in parlrliamt on tuesday too challenge worst johnson on what i thinink is a smash and grab raid against our democracy, where he is tried to suspend parliament in order to prevent a serious discussion, serious debate tour event a no deal brexit. -- to prevent a no deal brexit. in news from africa, the death toll from an ebola outbreak in the democratic republic of congo has topped 2000. it's the second worst outbreak of the epidemic on record. the world health organizatioion has called the situation in the drc "one of the largest and most complex huhumanitarian crises in the world." accordrding to the who, 48,000 people in the drdrc have died of malaria this year, 3100 have died of measles, and nearly 300

hahave died of cholerara. environmental groups are threatening to sue the trump admininiration ovever its move o rescind regulations on methane emissions at oil and gas plants. on thursday, the environmental protection agency put forward a new rule to overturn regulations put in place by president obama. according to the epa, the rule will save energy companies up to $123 million through 2025. but environmental groups warn the change could have a devastating impact on the climate crisis. methane has more than 80 times the heat-trapping potential l of carbon dioxide. the naacp of alabama is calling on the state's republican governor to resign after she acknowledged she once wore blackface during a college skit in 1967 when she was a student at auburn. republican governor kay ivey apologized for the incident after audio of a radio interview resurfaced where shehe and her then-fiance talked about the skitit where she dressed in blackface and crawleled around looking for cigar butts.

across look at my fiance the room, i can see her that night. she had on a pair blue coveralls and she put some black paint all over her face. and she was -- we were acting out this skit called "cigar butts." amy: earlier this year, photos emerged of kay ivey's sorority sisters at auburn wearing blackface but none showed the future governor. two former new york police detectives who were accused of raping an 18-year-old in a police van after they arrested and handcuffed her will avoid facing any time in jail. on thursday, the former detectives, eddie martins and richard hall, pleaded guilty to lesser charges and were sentenced to probation even though prosecutors had requested a sentence of one to three years in prison. the detectives claimed the 2017 encounter was consensual. a lawyer for the teenage victim denounced the sentence. michael david said -- "we're outraged.

it's complete injustice what happened today. you can't consent when you're 5'3, 100 pounds and they're both over 6 feet and very muscular. they had her in handcuffs. these cops got a free pass." in a move that could trigger an arms race in space, president trump has formally launched u.s. space command. at a white house ceremony, trump described space as the next war fighting domain. pres. trtrump: as the newest combat in command, space, will defend america's vital interests in space, the next war fighting domain. veryll soon be followed importantly by the establishment of the united states space force as the s sixth branch of the united states armed forces. amy: jon rainwater of peace action criticized trump's announcement, saying -- "given that any fighting in space would likely be with nuclear powers like russia and china, the militarization of

space adds to the risk of nuclear war." seven catholic peace activists are heading to trial on october 21 after a federal judge rejected a request to dismiss their charges. the activists were arrested in april 2018 after they secretly entered the kings bay naval submarine base in georgia armed with hammers, crime scene tape, and baby bottles containing their own blood. the activists, who are known as the kings bay plowshares, face up to 25 years in prison. earlier this week, a judge rejected their attempt to cite the religious freedom restoration act as part of their defense. kings bay plowshare defendant patrick o'neill appeared on democracy now! earlier this year to talk about their novel defense. >> you have to have a religious believe that is sinincerely hel. and you also have to show that you have been burned by the government's reactions to what you have done and that this burden is eliminating the

practice of your religion. it was clear, was documented in our statement of undocumented by the blood, document of by culture, by the bible, by the spray painting of the religious scripture quotes. amy: go to democracynow.org to see our full coverage of the kings bay plowshares case. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, demomocracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we begin today's show with the trump administratition's ongoing assault on immigrant rights. on tuesdayay, the government reportedly ended its medical deferred action program, which allows immigrants with serious health problems to stay in the u.s. for up to two years beyond the terms of their visas to receive critical treatment. just one day later, it announced some children born to u.s. servicemembers and government employees stationed overseas will no longer automatically receive citizenship. this all came just days after the justice department asked the supreme court to allow the trump administration to implement its rule banning almost all migrants

frfrom seeking a asylum in thehe united states. a federal judge in san francisco had temporarily blocked the rule in july, halting plans to stop anyone who passes through a third country before arriving in the u.s. from applying for asylum. but monday, u.s. solicitor general noel francisco asked the supreme court to issue a stay on the ruling, allolowing the ruleo go into effect. the rule w would stop virtually all people frorom honduraselel salvador, , and guatatemala from seeking refuge in the united states and apply for asylum in mexico instead. amid these crackdowns, border wall construction began this week on federally protected lands in the remote arizona desert. construction crews are in the first phase of erecting two miles of border wall in organ pipe cactus national monument, endangering the fragile sonoran desert ecosystem, and destroying native tohono o'odham land. "the washington post" is reporting president trump has ordered his staff to speed up the construction of his border wall before the 2020 election, even if it means breaking the

law. all the while, many immigrant families remain separated due to trump's zero-tolerance policy, which was supposed to have ended more than a year ago. well, for more, we're joined by lee gelernt, deputy director of the aclu immigrants' rights project. welcome backck to democracy now! it is great to have you with us. i want to start with the trump administration's decision to end its s medical deferred action program. 16-year-old jonathan sanchez has cystic fibrosis and now fears his pending request with u.s. citizenship and immigration services will be denied. he was born in honduras. this is jonathan and audio clip from npr. program thatd the i need to go back to my country. because of will die my country, there is no treatment for cf. doctors don't even know what the

disease -- the only ones who can help me are here in the united states. massachusetts senator ed markey said the administration is now literally deporting kids with cancer and that the change would "terrorize sick kids who are literally fighting for their lives." massachusetts congngressmember ayanna pressley said she is considering calling for a congressional oversight hearing on the matter, saying -- "what's so troubling about this, beyond the cruelty of it, is the lack of transparency around the process. there was no public comment period, not even a public announcement of this." the aclu of massachusetts has vowed to fight the policy change in court. let's begin there. you helped to head up the immigration program of the aclu. what is involved here? we're talking about children and adults who were receiving critical care in hospitals around the u.s.

the think this is par for course. the administration going after the most vulnerable. for the last year and a half, we have been fighting the policy of separatiting little children, en babies, from families. last week, they went after military families. now they're going after sick kids. it is devastating, but not surprising. why the need to deport children who are sick? i mean, is that really in our country's interest? amy: you mention military families. let's talk about what they're talking about here. it all comes down one day after the next. servicemembers overseas, their children born where they are, might not get u.s. citizenship. >> the administration is saying they still can get citizenship, but that could take multiple steps now to do it. why the change? what possible national interest could be involved to make military families go through

additional steps to do this? outsettioned at the there is no transparency, no public comment. everything is done immediately without letting the public comment. can you imagine of they said, we want public comment on whether we should make it harder for military families? the public would have been outraged. if the public knew they were considering not having -- not allowing families with children with sick kids tuesday, people would have been outraged. i think that is part of why they don't ever have public comment. they are virtually banning asylum. comment, get. amy: what exactly are they proposing? >> they now have two asylum ban s. we got the first one and joioin. u.s. supupreme court refused to allow them to put it into effect. we're going forward and that when based on the merits. they come back with the second asylum ban, which is on the table right now. that would ban anyone transit it

through a third countryry. the adadministration is saying, wewell, justst apply o one of te other countries. administration knows full well it is too dangerous to apply for asylum in the northern triangle and that those asylulum systems are not functioning. so effectively, they're trying to ban asylum. that is a very dangerous cap for the united states to go on. we have got now blocked and they have asked the u.s. supreme court to let it go ineffective mediately. when i leave here, we will be finishing our opposition papers. we hope the supreme court will not let it go into effect. if they do, we're essentially ending asylum. amy: the trump administration issued a new rule to withdraw from a 1997 federal court settlement known as the flores agreement, which put a 20 day limit on migrant family detentions. it w would allow immigration authorities to detain migrant children for months and even years while their cases are heard. acting homeland security secretary kevin mcaleenan said

the new rule would serve as a deterrent to keep immigrants from c coming to the united states. inno child should be a pawn the scheme to manipulate our immigration system, which is why the numeral eliminates the incentive to exploit children as a free ticket. or as one german from guatemala tolman, a free passport. amy: this weekek, 19 states anad the district of columbia sued to block the rule from going into effect. looks with the medical community has said forever is if you raise children in detention centers, you're doing serious damage to them. i fear we're looking at the worst a bold world. the administration is continuing to separate families at the border. it is a danger to the child. what i fear is they're going to try to separate families at the border. those families they don't separate they will then send to jails and hold ththem indefinitely. so we're looking at separations

and indefinite detention. it is not when ultimately deter people in your answer is danger from coming. every mother i talk to when i said, would you have come anyway if you know this was going to happen? they just shrug and say, what choice did i have? amy: explain w what is happening wiwith separated families. we talked to you repeatedly during the last two years on this issue. separated families has always become an antiseptic term. children taken away from their parents. how many are still apart from their families? >> we had thought we had put a hold on this last summer. it turns out the administration is continuing to separate families. we're now approaching about 1000 families who have been separated just since the injunction the court issued last summer. the government is saying we found a loophole. the judge said w we can separate families, take little children away if the parent is a danger.

we assume that meant their finding parents dish they are finding parents v very serious crimes. it turns out from the government's own evidence, there separating, one cases had, misdemeanor theft of five dollars in the past or even traffic violations. that is what they're claiming is a basis for separation. not only that, you mention the little children. more little children are being separated now than last summer at the height of zero-tolerance. 20% of the children are under five, including children one year and two years old. literally, ripping babies away claiming your parent is too dangerous to stay there. we look at the sheet on the parent, maybe a misdemeanor theft or a dui in the past. amy: you even have a situation in mississippi, the recent raid on the chicken plants where the children are weeping, , going he in buses from school and there is no one there. >> the administration puts out

the sound bite we're going after hardened criminals, national security threats. but when you look at who they are going after, they're going after workers in mississippi. they're now going to deport children with cancer. they're going after military families. the reality on the ground is nothing like the soundbite you hear from the administration. this is an all-out attack on immigrants. amy: the trump administration plans to shift over 270 million dollars of federal funds, including at least $155 million from fema's disaster relief fund to help pay for its highly contested "remain in mexico those quote policy. the funds would pay for temporary courts on the southern border to hear c cases of asylum seekers who have been forced to return to mexico while their cases proceed through the u.s. legal system. money also to be used to add nearly 7000 more spaces to immigrgration prisons. >> it is all about law-enforcement. it is all about the symbolism,

the politics. everyone knows the wall is not asked the going to do anything and not only that they're taking the money from real needs, from the military, from various other is a situation where it is all about how is it going to look, what can i use as a soundbite? amy: we will certainly continue to follow this story. it we're going to ask you to stay with us, lee gelernt, for the hour because we're going to the u.s. mexico border. we just came back from their last week. to look at ththe case of a 16-year-old mexican teenager who was gunned down in mexico by a u.s. border agent who shot through the wall. we want to talk to about this case after we talk to his mother and his grandmother. we met them on the mexico side of the border as they stood in the very place where their boy jose antonio lay dying in 2012.

there is a little altar to him there. we will talk about what is happening in this case and why it could be soon determined by the u.s. supreme court. lee gelernt is deputy director of the aclu immigrants' rights project. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. on wednesday, border patrol agent jason mcgilvray pleaeaded guilty to a misdemeanor chcharge for assaultiting an undocumented immigrant. according to court documents, mcgilvray apprehended the man -- who has not been named -- when he attempted to jump a border fence in southern california earlier this year. after taking the man into custody, the border agent subsequently punched him in the subsequently punched him in the face. few details are known abouout te assault. mcgilvray had been a border patrol agent since 2006. he resigned as part of his plea agreement and was sentenced to one year probation. he is the second border patrol agent to plead guilty to a

ttacking a migrant in jujust the past few w weeks. earlier this month, agent matthew bowen pleaded guilty to intentionally hitting a guatemalan migrant with his truck at the u.s.-mexico border near nogales, arizona, in 2017. in a series of racist messages between bowen and other border patrol agents, bowen referred to immigrants as "subhuman" and "mindless murdering savages," according to court documents. bobowen, who has also resigned from border patrol, will be sentenced in october. border patrol has for years bebn plagued with hundreds of allegations of abuse and unnecessary use of deadly force, inclcluding the cross-border murders of at least six people on mexican soil. most casases are not investigatd and border agents are rarely criminally charged for using violent force. we tururn now to an internationally-known case that many had hoped would change this patterern of impunity -- t the h of 16-year-old jose antonio elena rodriguez, a teenager from the border town of nogales,

sonora, mexico, who was shot to death by border patrol agent lonnie swartz through the u.s.-mexico border wall on october 10, 2012. jose antonio was walking home when lonnie swartz began shooting at the teenager through the border wall from the u.s.s. side of the border, which stands at least 40 feet above the mexican side. it is on a kind of ledge. the agent fired some 16 rounds through the slats of the wall into mexico, striking elena -- striking jose antonio 10 times in the back and head. in the midststf the shooting, lonnie swartz reloaded his weapon and kept firing. the teen died face-down on the sidewalk just a couple of blocks from his home. the border patrol agent alleged the teenager was throwing rocks at him. but even this is disputed. his momother and grandmother spt

nearly five years fighting for justice. lonnie swartz went on trl l for sesecond dreree muer in 2017. a tucson jury acquieded himnd we deaeadlked ononanslaughter charges. in a sond triainin novberr 2018, swtztz wasoundnd n guiltyf f invontarary -- voltary manaughter. -- of involunty y mansughthter federaprprosecors s dinott pursue a thi t trial wonder srtz is o admistrativeeave andtill ces a cil rightsawsuit from themerican civil liberts union ought on thhave o was antonio's thther aracacel the wswsuit cururrely penenng in the srereme crt. earlier this month, democracy now! traveled to the arizona-sonora borderlands. in nogales, mexico, i interviewed araceli rodriguez and taide elena at exactly the spot where jose antonio was gunned down nearly seven years ago.

was antonio's mother and grandmother. i began by asking araceli rodriguez to describe what happened to her son. >> he was murdered october 10, 2012. he was murdered by a border patrol agent who shot into mexico and killed himim with h 0 bullets on his back. amy: how did you hear he had been killed? >> my brother-in-law called me on the phone and told me that jose antonio had been murdered. amy: can you tell us about your son? he was a very happy child. he was a good kid. he was a boy who loved his mother. he liked being at home. he liked playing basketball. for me, he was the best. i am his mother. he was a really good boy. amy: can you explain how you

understand he died? >> e everyone knows what happend that day. how jose antonio was killed. he was killed here in front of the border wall. he was walking on the sidewalk. sometimes repeating this over and over again, explaining what happened, is very painful. murdered and there has been no justice. he was killed inin the world is the same. he was murdered and border patrol agent lonnie swartz is still free. he still has a job. it is very hard for me as a mother to remember these moments , to be repeating this story when we know we have to do it if we ever want justice.

it is so hard as a mother to speak about how my son was murdered on the sidewalk with so many bullets. how is it possible that lonnie in theshot jose antonio back 10 times, alleging my son was throwing rocks? as you can see, the height of the wall and then you see where jose antonio was killed. it was clear he was murdered in cold blood. it is so frustrating and it makes me so angry knowing that a

person can stick his hand in there and kill mexican children with impunity. nothing happened to lonnie swartz. he is still free, still has a job, and let my family completely destroyed. he left us with a pain in our heart that will last forever.. amy: the border patrol agent said he feared for his life. he would have been standing, oh, 30 feet above your son walking here on the sidewalk. can you respond to the agent saying he feared for his life? >> that lonnie swartz lied the whole time. he tried to defend something indefensible. video because

there's a camera right there. there was a video that was allegedly lost where it showed lonnie swartz murdering my son. what he says about his life being in danger is not true. everyone who comes here and sees the height of this wall realizes that lonnie swartz was lying about my son throwing rocks. his own coworkers at the trial said that his life was not in danger, that he could have stepped away. it was never proven jose antonio was throwing rocks. amy: can you describe the

trials, the two trials that happened? you decided not to be in the trial for the verdict. why? since the beginning, we saw how the judge in the entire jury was on the murderer's site. they were all american. they were all racist people. the way they saw us was as if we were bugs. they gave us dirty looks. the murderer had a lot of privileges that we never did. he sat there with his water, with his coffee, with his computer, reading books if you wanted to. we were not allowed to look at him.

we would get in trouble if we looked at him. lonnie swartz had so many benefits that we knew with the verdict was going to be. there was a lot of racism. i feel like even the jury was bought. they were all, no offense, gringos. there were all blond, white people, pure americans. there was not a single mexican sitting there. you came here to the interview with your 15-year-old and 16-year-old daughter's, that then, they were eight and

nine years old. how have they been affected by the death of their older brother? >> my girls were very young. andrea was around nine years old and my other was eight. we were all affected by jose antonio's debt. a lot of people can talk about his death, but they will never feel what a mother feels when their son is ripped away the way my son was. it is a pain, a mark that last your entire life. it is something you always think about. you always miss your child. if i see a young man who may be

wearing a hat that jose antonio had, i remember him. seeing a young man wearing a shirt that looked like one that jose antonio had come i think it is him when i know he is gone. the pain will never go away. bmi family will always feel that pain. amy: what message would you like to leave with the people of the united states about your son jose antonio? >> to put themselves in my shoes. people who are fathers and mothers i think are the people who may be understand. have your son murdered in the way mine was is a horrific pain that i do not wish upon anyone.

to the j jurors, i would ask th, are you at peace with the decision you made? i would ask them if their consciences clean with the decision they made. at the trial of a they showed a mannequin representing my son, showing them exactly where the bullets injured his body. he was shot in the head and lonnie swartz continued to shoot him. to the jurors, the judge, and the murderer himself, i asked him, how do you sleep at night? how are you at peace with your cells after you murdered my son?

i had hoped that jose antonio's case would have justice and it would help stop all of this. how is it possible that mexican children are being murdered and the american people don't do anything? not even the mexican people do something or the mexican government. for meme, both tririals were a . they just made me angry. 1, 2 very long trials just to declare this man not guilty. in one occasion, i overheard a border patrol agent saying the agency was ready to spend money on five, even 10 trials, just like this one. this is the anger we have. we are also angry and mexico.

mexico is not strong enough to demand the extradition of this murderer. my son was murdered on mexican territory, and lonnie swartz has to pay. we will not stop fighting. i don't like to give interviews, but i know i have to post up i want jose antonio's name to be remembered. i want people to know he was murdered by a border patrol agent and that nothing was done about it. we need your support. that is why i stand in front of this camera, in front of this microphone, demanding justice. amy: her silly rodriguez speakiking at the exacact locatn where heher son --araceli

rodriguez speaking at the exact location where her son was gunned down by border patrol in 2012. he on the mexico side, the border patrol agent on the u.s. side. i also spoke to taide elena, jose antonio elena rodriguez's grandmother. his aunt gabriela lopez translated for her. i asked taide elena to tell us her grandson jose antonio. >> antonio was a boy who was in the middle of high school. goals. kids of his age , he was a very happy boy. he loved basketball. he loved to play basketball.

educated. he was a good boy. he did not deserve to die like that. nobody deserves to die like that. amy: what did he want to be when he grew up? >> he wanted to finish high school and turn 18 and join the army. because i would tell him, why do you want to be a soldier? and you would answer me with , and why don'tn you like soldiers? because soldiers are trained to kill. grandma, there are

also good soldiers. not all are bad. but i want to be there because i want a career. and when i am finished with my careerer, i will stop being a soldier in a will dedicate myself to my career. that is my goal. that is his goal. and his biggest dream, allusion, to ride in a plane. she had told him she was going to take them to guadalajara come all three of them. because they were going to make their first communion over there. he wanted to know how it felt to ride in a plane, if you could

see the clouds. the clouds under you, she would tell him. s were really long because we were going to leave in march 2013. he dieied in october. amy: the grandmother of jose thenio elena rodriguez, 16-year-old mexican teenager who was gunned down by a u.s. border agent in 2012. when we come back, we continue to speak with lee gelernt of the aclu who represents the family. we will talk to him about the u.s. supreme court case that will determine whether his family can sue. the border patrol agent who killed him was acquitted in trial. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "no estoy tan mal" by gaby moreno. this is democracy now!, i'm amy goodman. in october, the supreme court will decide whether the parents of sergio hernandez guereca, a 15-year-old mexican teen killed by a border patrol agent, can sue the american agent in a u.s. federal court.

the case began in 2010 after border patrol agent jesus mesa jr. shot across the el paso-juarez border and struck hernandez guereca in the head. the teen had been playing with his friends on the mexico side when he was killed. the central question in the case is whether a mexican citizen killed on mexican soil by a u.s. border agent is protected by the u.s. constitution, allowing for the family members of victims to file civil lawsuits. if the supreme courts rules inin favor of hernandez guereca's case, the decision will likely impact the case of 16-year-old mexican teenager jose antonio elena rodriguez. for more, we continue our conversation with lee gelernt, deputy director of the aclu immigrants' rights project, who represents is antonio's family -- jose antonio's family in the civil lawsuit. you have been in their homes so many times. talk about your involvement with

this case and how this is going to the supreme court, even after the border agent was acquitted. >> right. there are two parallel systems. the justice department brought the criminal case. acquitted, but he was acquitted. we have brought a civil rights case against the agent himself for money damages. obviously, money damages cannot undo what has happened but it would be some vindication to have a lawsuit that is successful against the agent. so we have prevailed so far in in theer courts and ninth circuit court of appeals. amy: that jose antonio's family can sue in a court here, though he was killed on mexican soil. >> exactly. guereca's hernandez in texas, that u.s. court of appeals for the fifth circuit said you cannot bring the civil rights suit. so the case has reached the

supreme court. the supreme court will hear the hernandez case, which was ahead of our case, and that will likely impact what has happened. i have been doing this work a long time. what i always try and do is explain to the family this is the government's position. generally speaking, people understand it. they do not agree, but they understand. i would say this is the hardest time i've ever had in my 30 year career of explaining the government's position because what the government is saying is, he is a mexican citizen on mexican soil, only 15 feet over the border. he cannot sue because this is essentially a case in mexico, is what the government is saying. and his mother and his grandmother just look at me and say, that it is a u.s. agent using a u.s. firearm standing on u.s. soil. why does that not involve the united states government? what is the constitution not apply to him? amy: when you say, how do you shoot through a wall, there are

slats and this wall. this is the equivalent of stories above where this boy was across the street in mexico am a but there are slats and the wall and he shot through, pointing down. it is like a fish in a fishbowl. we talkeked to them right wheree died. and theya mural of him stood as if he was standing with them. >> and that is a main thoroughfare where people go to school, go to medical appointment, go to business appointments. and so they have to be walking there. if they are just sitting there and can be shot with constitutional impunity, that is a very dangerous situation. we are hoping the u.s. supreme court says this civil rights suit can go forward because this is the last straw, at least in our courts. amy: what is amazing in this trial, the other border agents did not shoot at jose antonio. >> i think --

amy: they said they did not see a threat. >> if you have been there, and your piece did a great job of showing that, you would essentially have to be a major league baseball plalar even to get a rock up there to come close to hitting anybody. what we have said is, look, there is no way he was in mortal danger and needed to shoot. but the question is that really whether jose antonio was throwing rocks or not. assume for the purpose of argument he was throwing rocks. there's no way the agent could have been hurt, and that is shown by the fact that two other agents are standing there just watching. amy: he also had lied in other situations. explain lonnie swartz, who he was. >> we don't know everything that has hahappenedbubut what we'e're ununderstanding is his disciplinary record was not great. stuff came out at the trial, yet the jury still acquitted. i think that shows you how hard it is -- amy: that he have been discharged from the military. >> it shows how hard it is to

convict a law-enforcement agent and that is why these lawsuits are so critical. that is why the government wants to shut it down. they are saying, we will dececie whether to discipline an agent. that is the fox guarding the hen. amy: and the significance of the supreme court case, not only for antonio's family, but for others? iswhat it would be saying border patrol agents have basically impunity. and what we're seeing and have seen for a long time is serious abuse. i think this administration is sending a signal, treat this as if it is a military operation. we're likely to see more and more abuse. if the supreme court says these lawsuits cannot go forward, that will be a very dangerous situation. amy: thank you very much for being with us. we will continue to follow this story as the supreme court weighs the decision. lee gelernt, deputy director of the aclu immigrants' rights project. when democracy now! was in the

borderlands of arizona covering the death of jose antonio elena rodriguez, we met with richard boren of the border patrol victims network. he stood in nogales, arizona, on the u.s. side of the border wall at exactly the spot where border patrol lonnie swartz pointed his gun through the wall to shoot and kill jose antonio on october 10, 2012. bulletet after bullet afterr but , even as he was down. at this site, richard boren displayed a banner with images of jose antonio and other victims of bordeder patrol, whoe agents have killed at least 97 people since 2003. at leaeast six mexexicans have n killed by border patatrol on mexican soil. wewe want to end todayay's showh richard boren reading the names of some of the people killed by border patrol and telling their stories. >> juan, 19 years old, was a guest at the time in el paso,

texas. i think it was in 2007. he was actually killed by the border patrol outside the shelter on the street. agagain, they made u up a story saying h he was tried to attack agents with a pipe. jujust commonplace that witnesss also said that was not the case at all. 30 years old, who is one of the victims on the mexico side. he was shot by border patrol down there matamoros. moving over here, guillermo.. i think he was about 35 years old. he was killed. he was at a picnic on the mexico side in nuevo, laredo, and enjoying his daughter's birthday party when the border patrol was on a boat and began just shooting wildly on the river.

he was killed and died in his nine-year-old daughter's arms. i believe it was 2010. ia, in her 30's, was a mother of five. she was killed by an undercover border patrol agent in suburban san diego. the border patrol used to have, anand stop probably do, a tactic of getting in front of a moving vehicle to justify firing into the vehicle, killing the driver. so that is what happened that day. borderan undercover patrol agent in plain clothes. she may have thought she was being carjacked or something. anyway, he shot and killed her. old, also oners of the victims killed on the mexico side of the fence in

2010. he was killed by border patrol agent who shot him in the head. there is video. it looked like he was playing a game of cat and mouse, just trying -- with border patrol, running back and forth and completely unarmed. all of these people were unarmed. the border patrol shot him in the head. the border patrol agent in his killing was down on the other side of the fence on the river. he was stitill on the u.s. sidef the rio grande.e. sergio was standing on the mexico side of the river. hernandez we added because he was killed by the u.s. marines in 1997 in t texas. it sort of set the stage for so many other killings, that the deployed down there at this timime in viololation oe

posse, titus act where they're not supposed to do any sort of policing in the u.s. will stop it is commonly violated now. they were camped outside his camouflaged, when he was herding his goats. he carried a .22 rifle with him to hunt rabbits and so forth. and they shot him in cold blood as well. the grand jury refused to indict him. the agent says i'm sorry, the marine was not indicted and there was no justice for the family, either. the last when i would like to mention rogue quick is anastasio in california by about 15 border patrol agents when they were trying to deport him. he was handcuffed, laying on the ground. this was photographed and

videotaped by bystanders showing him being ruthlessly beaten, crying for mercy. he died like the next day from his injuries, being beaten by these bororder patrol agents. none of them have been indicted and no charges. unfortunately, that is the common theme in all of this that the border patrol can get away with murder. i do want to mention somebody who is not on this banner that was killed last year because these killings are still acurring, and that is claudia guatemalan indigenous woman who was killed after she crossed the border in laredo, texas. none did down by border patrol and murdered -- gunned down and murdrdered by border patrol. they came up with a fabricated story claiming she had, with others to attack of border patrol with two by fours and they actually retracted that true.that it wasn't

that is one of the few times they have ever retracted the story. but yet there is been no charges filed against those agents, either, against thehe death of this young womanan. amy: that is richard boren with the border patrol victims network. one of the victims named was actually killed in 2012, not 2010. richard was standing at the site on the u.s. out of of the border, up against the border wall come up against the slats where he had put his mural, right where lonnie swartz took dishun the border aided border agent, and shot to the slats and killed jose antonio elena rodriguez. a special thanks to our team on the ground. that does it for our broadcast. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or mail them to democracy now! p.o. box 693 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possible by

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