In May 2010, Anastasio Hernández Rojas died after sustaining brutal injuries at the hands of U.S. Border Patrol. His death has since become one of the highest-profile incidents of Border Patrol’s excessive use of force against migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. Despite video footage released from the scene depicting abusive acts by Border Patrol and calls from Congress to investigate the incident, not a single officer was held accountable and, in 2015, DOJ declined to pursue criminal charges. But renewed hope for justice came in 2016, when the family of Anastasio Hernández Rojas took their case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (“Commission”). This case is the first before the Commission to address law enforcement violence at the U.S.-Mexico border and the first to accuse U.S. law enforcement of an  extrajudicial killing. This Note examines how a Commission decision against the United States in this case may encourage meaningful reform in law and policy related to border abuses in the United States. Specifically, this Note argues that a Commission decision against the United States has the power to increase international attention on abuses at the U.S.-Mexico border, facilitate activism around excessive use of force at the border, and reframe border abuses as human rights issues. Ultimately, the decision in the Anastasio Hernández Rojas case can pave the way for similarly situated victims to make use of the Commission to hold the United States accountable for state-sanctioned human rights abuses.  

Continue Reading State-Sanctioned Abuses at the U.S.-Mexico Border: Using the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to Hold the United States to Account