Killings Across the U.S.-Mexican Border Go Unpunished Due to a Lack of Illegal Crossing Protocol

While the U.S. Senate approved a border security amendment, which enforces the monitoring on the border with México and doubles the number of Border Patrol agents to more than 40,000, a joint investigation by the Washington Monthly and the Research Fund at the Nation Institute reports that over the past five years U.S. border agents have shot across the border at least 10 times, killing a total of six Mexican civilians.

All of these killing have gone unpunished, after a court ruled that the Mexican victims have no standing to sue in U.S. since they died in their own country. Investigative reporter John Carlos Frey believes that the approved border security amendment could increase México's civilian death toll.

The most recent case is that of José Antonio Rodríguez, a 16-year-old who died on October 10, 2012 in Nogales, Sonora. Rodríguez was shot for allegedly throwing a package of drugs across the border, reported Democracy.org.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) failed to make a report on this case, despite being oblige to. The alleged package of drugs was never found.

Sergio Hernández Huereca died the same way as Rodríguez on June 2010 after an officer chased him and shot him. In these cases, state authorities were obliged to provide legal defense. However, there is no action protocol when it comes to undocumented people trying to cross the border, so the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has reported the need for one.

What does exist is an international agreement with Mexican law enforcement officials that states that U.S. Border Patrol agents are barred from firing their weapons into Mexico from the United States under any circumstances. Instead they are supposed to call Mexican authorities whenever there is an incident on the Mexican side of the border and notify the Center for Investigation and National Security in Mexico City as well as local Mexican police closest to the incident.

Despite an increase in the number of immigrants who died while attempting to illegally cross in 2012, fewer people have actually tried to enter the U.S., a report by the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) states.According to the NFAP, 477 immigrants died in 2012 along the U.S-México border. Back then, the Foundation suggested that the border is getting more dangerous. In 2006, arrests neared 400, while for 2011 the number dropped to less than 200.