Family of Guatemalan Woman Shot Dead by U.S. Border Patrol Sues
Source: Associated Press
BY ASSOCIATED PRESS MAY 12, 2020 9:47 PM EDT
(LAREDO, Texas) — The family of a 20-year-old Guatemalan woman shot dead in 2018 by a U.S. Border Patrol agent filed a civil rights lawsuit Tuesday against the agent and the U.S. government.
The family of Claudia Gómez González is suing in federal court in Laredo, Texas for unspecified actual and punitive damages.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas filed the lawsuit one year after filing a $100 million federal claim on the family’s behalf. The claim was filed one year after the May 23, 2018, shooting.
Gómez González crossed the Texas-Mexico border with several other migrants when border agents confronted them in a vacant lot near Laredo. One agent shot Gómez González in the head, and she took moments to die, according to the lawsuit.
Read more: https://time.com/5836005/claudia-gomez-gonzalez-shooting-border-patrol-lawsuit/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+time%2Ftopstories+%28TIME%3A+Top+Stories%29
Claudia Gómez González Wasn’t Killed by a Rogue Border Agent—She Was Killed by a Rogue Agency
It is time to rein in Customs and Border Protection by demanding accountability and transparency.
By Daniel Altschuler and Natalia Aristizabal MAY 29, 2018
Dominga Vicente shows a photo of her niece Claudia Gómez González, during a press conference at the National Migrants Commission headquarters in Guatemala City, May 25, 2018. (AP Photo / Moises Castillo)
The killing of Claudia Patricia Gómez González on May 23 by a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agent has sparked outrage across the United States. Gómez Gonzalez, a 20-year-old immigrant from Guatemala, embodied the aspirations of so many who come to this country: Trained as a forensic accountant, she left her homeland because she wanted to keep studying. With no way to earn the money to further her education at home, she traveled north to earn a living and reunite with her boyfriend in Virginia. Her dreams were met with a bullet in the head.
. . .
Nor is CBP violence limited to immigrants crossing the southern border. No fewer than 28 of those killed were US citizens. And, while most of the CBP killings recorded by The Guardian occurred in Texas, Arizona, and California, CBP agents also operate with impunity along the northern border. Since 2003, CBP agents have killed people in Maine, Michigan, Montana, New York, and Washington State.
CBP has paid $9 million to settle some of these cases, but the agency’s primary strategy in cases of deadly force seems to be to cover up its agents’ brutality. In the case of Gómez González, the agency first argued that its agent had “fatally wounded one of the assailants” who attacked him with “two-by-four pieces of lumber.” An eyewitness, Marta Martínez, took cell-phone video of the aftermath and later observed that there were no two-by-fours in the area. The agency changed its story to claim the agent fired his gun after being “rushed” by the group with which Gómez González was traveling.
. . .
CBP’s culture of impunity extends further. As Americans are awakening to the news that children are being separated from their parents at the border, we must also heed the findings of a recent American Civil Liberties Union report that reviewed 30,000 pages of federal records and found evidence of “rampant abuse” of unaccompanied minors by CBP, including threats of rape and children “being stomped on, punched, kicked, run over with vehicles, tased, and forced to maintain stress positions by CBP officials.” Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) oversight entities, unsurprisingly, have dismissed the findings.
More:
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/claudia-gomez-gonzalez-wasnt-killed-by-a-rogue-border-agent-she-was-killed-by-a-rogue-agency/
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