Border violence : hearing before the Subcommittee on International Law, Immigration, and Refugees of the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, One Hundred Third Congress, first session, on H.R. 2119, Immigration Enforcement Review Commissi

378 Pages·1994·13.8 MB·English

by  United States. Congress. House. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee on International Law, Immigration, and Refugees

BORDER VIOLENCE
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL LAW,
IMMIGRATION, AND REFUGEES
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED THIRD CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
ON
H.R. 2119
IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT REVIEW COMMISSION ACT
SEPTEMBER 29, 1993
MAY 1
2 7 20~-J
S0ST0,IPUBLICi-5h^RY!
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use of the Committee on the Judiciary
U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
WASHINGTON 1994
:
ForsalebytheU.S.GovernmentPrintingOffice
SuperintendentofDocuments,CongressionalSalesOffice,Washington,DC 20402
ISBN 0-16-0A3567-6

BORDER VIOLENCE
HEAKING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL LAW,
IMMIGRATION, AND REFUGEES
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED THIRD CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
ON
H.R. 2119
IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT REVIEW COMMISSION ACT
SEPTEMBER 29, 1993
MAY
2 7 20^J
JOSTO, PUBLIC tbF^RYi
I
^VERNMFr
DOCUMEfyTS "f^nu
use of the Committee on the Judiciary
U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
WASHINGTON : 1994
ForsalebytheU.S.GovernmentPrintingOffice
SuperintendentofDocuments,CongressionalSalesOffice.Washington,DC 20402
ISBN 0-16-043567-6
.
COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY
DON EDWARnc, r ,-. '^^^^ ^^^°^' ^""^' Chairman
ROMANO L. MAZZOLI, Kentucky S^v^/r^^^^^' California
MWIIKLELISAYMNAJ.R.HUOGkHlEahSo.maNewJeree^v F^.^JSALMiE"S S^E^N^S^'EN^B"'R"E0^N^NER. Jr..
DPAATNRIGCLIIACKSCMH/ROi^TM:«r, ^ . , Wisconsin
BARNEY FRA' ^
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RICK BoucH' ^iiited states. Congress
JOHN BRYAN HousB. CoRiTCLttee OR the
GEORGE E. a TBjo^e^dje^r^ ,vHio^1le^«nrc,^e^
CRAiGA. wAi
JACK REED,
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JERROLD NAI
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United States. Congress.
Hoiose. Comnittee on the
Border violence
SUBCOM
ts
DATE ISSUED TO
CHARLES
E. S(
JOHN BRYANT
GEORGE
E. SAJ
JERROLD NADl
XAVIER BECER
HAMPDEN LAW LIBRARY
50 STATE ST, BOX 559
SPRINGFIELD, MA. 01102-0559
OEMCO
I
CONTENTS
HEARING DATE
Page
September29, 1993 1
TEXT OF BILL
H.R. 2119 7
OPENING STATEMENT
Mazzoli, Hon. Romano L., a Representative in Congress from the State of
Kentucky, and chairman, Subcommittee on International Law, Immigra-
tion, and Refugees 1
WITNESSES
Baish, PeterJ., DeputyAssistant Commissioner, Inspection and Control Divi-
sion, U.S. Customs Service, accompanied by Robert Holler, District Direc-
tor, El Paso, TX 28
Billet-Roumell, Debbie, legislative liaison. National Treasury Employees
Union 62
Bonner, T.J., president. National Border Patrol Council, AFGE, AFL-CIO 66
Moreno,Jose, executive director. DiocesanMigrant and Refugee Services 81
Moreno, Mario, regional counsel, Mexican American Legal Defense and Edu-
cational Fund 113
Sale, Chris, Acting Commissioner, Immigration and Naturalization Service,
accompanied byJohn Chase, Director, Internal Audit 19
Stein, Dan, executive director. FederationforAmerican Immigration Reform .. 100
Wheeler, Bruce, council member, City ofTucson, Arizona 93
LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING
Baish, PeterJ., DeputyAssistant Commissioner, Inspection and Control Divi-
sion, U.S. Customs Service: Prepared statement 30
Billet-Roumell, Debbie, legislative Uaison, National Treasury Employees
Union:
Excerptfrom thebill H.R. 2119 76
Information concerningan anonymous complaint 77
Bonner, T.J., president, National Border Patrol Council, AFGE, AFL-CIO:
Prepared statement 68
Gallegly, Hon. Elton, a Representative in Congress from the State ofCaUfor-
nia: Prepared statement 55
Moreno, Jose, executive director. Diocesan Migrant and Refugee Services:
Prepared statement 83
Moreno, Mario, regional counsel, Mexican American Legal Defense and Edu-
cational Fund: Prepared statement 116
Sale, Chris, Acting Commissioner, Immigration and Natiiralization Service:
Data concerninginvestigationsofmisconduct 60
Information concerning civil suits pending against INS officer mis-
conduct 60
Information concerning amounts of moneys paid in settlements or as
judgments ofabuse complaints againstthe INS and BorderPatrol 60
Letter to Peter D. Bell, chair, Americas Watch, dated September 15,
1993 42
(III)
—
IV
Page
Sale, Chris, Acting Commissioner, Immigration and Naturalization Service
CoPnetricneunetdage of all assailants presented, f^or prosecuti.on and, act^ual„ly con-
victed and sentencedforassaulton aFederal ofiBcer 41
SteinP,reDpaanr,edexsetcauttievmeendtirector, Federation for American •I•mmigrati•.on R••ef-•orm: 23
Prepared statement -• • •••••: 102
Tobias, Robert M., national president. National Treasury Employees Umon:
Prepared statement 64
Wheeler, Bruce, council member. CityofTucson,Arizona: ^
ARetstoalcuhtmieonntptaospsreedpabryedthsetatCeimteyntCouncil of Tucson in support of;.""HV.VRi.'
2119 1''2
APPENDIXES
Appendix 1.—Statement ofRichard J. Hankinson, Inspector General, Depart-
ment of Justice, before the Subcommittee on Information, Justice, Trans-
portation andAgriculture, House Committee onGovernmentOperations 177
Appendix 2.—StatementofRev. Anthony Hefner, Cynthia Rodriguez, Beatrice
ApHpueenrdtiaxa3n.d—JLoevtittearUdrartuetdiaOctober 7, 1993, from Barbara Hines, Lawyers• 214
Committee for Civil Rights Under Law of Texas, Immigrant and Refugee
217
ApRpiegnhdtisxPr4o.—jecSttatement of Maria Jimenez, American Friends •S••ervi:ce •C••om-
mittee, ImmigrationLaw EnforcementMonitoringProject 239
Appendix 5.—Statement of Robert Koulish, a doctoral candidate in political
science attheUniversityofWisconsin ••••• 243
Appendix 6.—Statement of Mimi Lopez, case manager, Albuquerque Border
CityProject ••••••; •.••• ^59
Appendix 7.—Statement of Roberto L. Martinez, American Friends Service
Committee 265
Appendix 8.--^Letter dated Sep^^^ 24, 1993, from Margie McHugh, execu-
tivedirector, theNewYork Immigration Coalition 269
Appendix 9.—Statement of RogeUo T. Nunez, executive director, Casa de
Proyecto Libertad -• 293
Appendix 10.—Statement of Hon. Ed Pastor, a Representative in Congress
fromthe State ofArizona ••••••• 296
Appendix 11.—Statement ofStephen Rosenbaum, California Rural Legal As-
sistance Foundation •- 299
Appendix 12.—Open letter, with enclosures, dated October 15, 1993, from
Dan Stein, executive director, Federation for American Immigration Re-
form 317
Appendix 13.~Letter dated October 3, 1993, from Robert M. Tobias, national
president, theNational Treasury Employees Union 324
Appendix 14.—Statement of Samuel Walker, professor of criminal justice,
DepartmentofCriminalJustice, UniversityofNebraska atOmaha 326
Appendix 15.—Letter dated August 31, 1993, from Hon. Ann W. Richards,
Governor, StateofTexas 366
BORDER VIOLENCE
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1993
House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on International Law,
Immigration, and Refugees,
Committee on the Judiciary,
Washington, DC.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice at 9:36 a.m., in room
2237, Raybum House Office Building, Hon. Romano L. Mazzoli
(chairman ofthe subcommittee) presiding.
Present: Representatives Romano L. MazzoH, Greorge E.
Sangmeister, Jerrold Nadler, Xavier Becerra, Bill McCoUum,
Lamar S. Smith, Elton Gallegly, and Charles T. Canady.
Also present: Eugene Pugliese, counsel; Katherine Urban, re-
search assistant; Judy Knott, secretary; and Peter Levinson, minor-
ity counsel.
Mr. Mazzoli. The subcommittee will come to order,
Mr. Smith. Mr. Chairman, I move that, pursuant to rule 5 ofthe
committee rules of procedure, the subcommittee allow this hearing
to be covered in whole or in part by television broadcast, radio
broadcast, and still photography.
Mr. Mazzoli. Without objection, the motion is agreed to. I thank
my friend from Texas.
OPENING STATEMENT OF CHAIRMANMAZZOLI
I have a short opening statement and will yield to any ofmy col-
leagues. I think by that time our friend from California, whose bill
is up today, will be here with us for his statement.
Today we have a hearing on H.R. 2119, which would seek to es-
tablish an independent review commission to investigate com-
plaints of civil rights abuses. That bill, H.R. 2119, was introduced
by our friend, Xavier Becerra ofCalifornia. In addition, we will also
hear testimony on a broader range of activities in the Immigration
Service and in the Border Patrol.
I don't think any one of us is comfortable with the idea of vio-
lence at the border, nor do we condone any activities of so-—called
rogue agents. On the other hand, it has been my experience and
I have had th—e honor of working with this subcommittee for well
over 10 years that the work done by the men and women of the
Border Patrol and of the Immigration Service and of the Customs
Service generally has been in the highest traditions of public serv-
ice, handling very dangerous, delicate and difficult assignments
with professionalism, courage, and efficiency.
(1)
The individual who goes beyond the norm and who exceeds the
guidehne is the individual whom the agencies and departments
themselves have established guidelines to target, and to eventually
eliminate from the service, iftheir conduct is that reprehensible.
So there are on the books both ofthe Customs Service and ofthe
Immigration Service and Border Patrol established programs and
procedures and policies which guide the sanctioning and, to some
extent, punishment, and eventually expulsion, and perhaps even
imprisonment ofpeople who have gone beyond those norms.
The gentleman from California's bill, which is an interesting bill
certainly and one which responds to some of the problems which
all of us see in the newspapers, is one which I think has to be
gauged not just in itself but against the backdrop of agencies of
government which already have procedures. I think the situation
is, at least in my mind, that if the procedures are working or will
work once fully implemented, and if these agents who go beyond
the standards are identified and acted against and expelled and
imprisoned in those instances where their conduct is criminal be-
havior, then there may not be a need for this bill.
So, with that, I am looking forward to the hearing because it will
present not just information on H.R. 2119 but on a broader range
of issues which this subcommittee will wrestle with in the weeks
and months ahead.
The gentleman from Florida.
Mr. McCOLLUM. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
I am looking forward, as you are, t—o welcoming our witnesses
today to this hearing about H.R. 2119 and the general oversight
we are going to have on the Border Patrol. Those of us who serve
on this subcommittee are acutely aware of the many difficulties an
understaffed Border Patrol faces in trying to deal every day with
surreptitious entries across our southern border.
A number ofmy colleagues and I want to provide the Border Pa-
trol with the personnel and equipment needed to apprehend a
much higher percentage ofthe undocumented aliens who flaunt our
immigration laws. The expenses associated with greater law en-
forcement efforts at the border are far less than the costs of find-
ing, apprehending, and deporting undocumented aliens who reach
the interior ofthe Unite—d States, and far less than the cost to th—ose
who are being deprived in the economic sector of our country of
their livelihoods because we have a large number ofundocumented
aliens here.
A strengthened Border Patrol is not the only answer to the un-
documented alien problem, but it is an indispensable ingredient of
any serious attempt to achieve compliance with our immigration
law.
Border Patrol agents face major dangers every day as they
confront the smugglers who traffic in human beings and in illicit
drugs. The Border Patrol's primary role in drug interdiction be-
tween ports of entry carries with it substantial personal risk. The
use of necessary force is an unavoidable aspect of a Border Patrol
agent's job. Abuses of Border Patrol authority can never be con-
doned, but in fairness to a dedicated force that generally functions
at a high level of professionalism, incidents of misconduct must be
seen in perspective. Misconduct is the exception rather than the
rule.
We need to investigate and respond to allegations of abuse with-
out preventing the Border Patrol from carrying out its essential
functions. The most important tools for preventing abuses are the
screening that accompanies recruitment, the education and train-
ing of agents, and the development of appropriate policies relating
to the use offorce.
This hearing affords us an opportunity to learn about INS's ef-
forts in that regard, and, to that end and to the end of general
oversight ofthe Border Patrol, I look forward to the hearing. Again,
thank you, Mr. Chairman, for the opportunity to comment on it.
Mr. Mazzoli. I thank the gentleman from Florida.
The gentleman from Illinois.
Mr. Sangmeister. I have no opening statement as such, but I
think from the remarks of both the chairman and the ranking
member that apparently there is a serious situation out here, and
I think we need to hear from INS and everyone else.
You have got good panels here, so we ought to be able to get to
the bottom of this, and I think the bottom line is to try to avoid,
obviously, any further legislation in this area creating any more
commissions than we have to if we possibly can. So we need to
know what the facts are.
Mr. Mazzoli. Thank you very much.
The gentleman from Texas.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Chairman, thank you. I certainly associate my-
self with your remarks and also with the remarks of the ranking
Republican, Mr. McCollum.
There is no one, I hope, anywhere in Congress or anywhere in
America that would condone the abuse or violation of any individ-
ual's civil rights, whether it occurs when a person crosses the bor-
der or at any other particular time. What I hope, though, will come
from this hearing is that we are able to put in perspective those
violations that have been documented, ifsuch have occurred.
And when I say put—it in perspective, I want to point out what
you did, Mr. Chairman and that is the huge percentage of Border
Patrol agents in any capacity serve with distinction. They serve
with courage. They have a tough job an—d they are constantly in
danger. A side that we seldom hear about and I hope we —will hear
about today from some individual who is going to testify is that
at the same time we consider the civil rights violations that may
or may not have occurred, we ought to be talking about the civil
rights violations that might occur to the Border Patrol agents
themselves. They are threatened; they are injured; some are killed;
and it works both ways. I think we need to be just as concerned
about the law enforcement officials as we are about the individuals
who are trying to come into this country illegally.
In another way, I also think we need to keep what we are hear-
ing in perspective. I know that Mexico itself, which has every rea-
son to want to file a protest with the United States about any
abuse or any violation of any civil right of a Mexican national, has
filed 24 protests over a 9-year period of time from 1982 to 1990.
Let me put that in context. That is 24 protests filed by Mexico
when there were approximately 10 million apprehensions by the
Border Patrol agents.
Nov/ I don't excuse any of the 24, assuming that those were civil
rights violations, but I think we need to put it in perspective that
the Border Patrol, 99.999 percent of the time, does do its job and
does it well.
There is one other thing I would like to have us keep in perspec-
tive as we go along, Mr. Chairman. I notice in the memo that I
have from a counsel that the first example given of a "recent inci-
dent" is & report of Border Patrol agents pursuing a vehicle that
contained about 11 undocumented aliens.
When the Border Patrol vehicle's lights failed and radio failed,
they stopped the chase and pulled off. The speeding vehicle that
was being operated by the illegal aliens continued on, eventually
ran through an intersection, killed three individuals in another car,
and killed two innocent pedestrians who happened to be high
school students. Individuals cite that as an abuse ofthe civil rights
of the illegal aliens, or at least that is an incident about which the
Border' Patrol agents were cited.
To me, that is turning the world upside down. We have an inci-
dent here where people who are trying to enforce the law of the
United S—tates, the Border Patrol agents, suddenly become the
criminals and the individuals who are in this country illegally,
who should be and probably were found guilty ofmanslaughter, are
suddenly the victims of injustice. That is clearly, I hope, not some-
thing that we are going to condone in testimony that we hear
today.
So, Mr. Chairman, my plea to you and my colleagues and those
who are testifying is, first, to keep this in perspective, and, second
of all, to remember that we are trying to enforce the laws of the
United States, and Border Patrol agents are trying to do their job,
and they do do it well in the vast majority ofcases.
Thank you Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Mazzoli. I thank the gentleman, and I certainly agree with
that.
I was struck too by testimony which will be given this morning
by the Customs Service explaining that there were something like
18 investigations of alleged assault by Customs employees against
civilian populations over a period of time measured from June
1992. During that same period of time there were like 5 million
passengers processed, and at the same time, interestingly enough,
there were 88 investigations of assaults by civilians against Cus-
toms people. So actually in that same time period there were more
actions directed against Customs than were alleged to be commit-
ted by Customs agents.
We welcome our friend from California whose bill this is, and the
gentleman is recognized for his statement.
Mr. Becerra. Thank you Mr. Chairman.
I would first like to again thank the chairman for all his work
and efforts on behalf of those of us who are very interested in the
issue of immigration. Let me also thank Kitty Urban from your
staff as well for doing such a tremendous job working with Valerie