Rodney Scott, Trump's CBP candidate who was accused

Amy Goodman: That is Democracy now!Democracysynow.org, The war and peace report. I am Amy Goodman with Juan González.

The Inter -American Commission for Human Rights has found customs and border guards that are responsible for the Mexican father Anastasio Hernández Rojas for torture files. It is the first time that the independent commission, which examines extrajudicial murders and human rights violations, has issued such results against a US criminal prosecution authority.

In 2010, Rojas crossed the southern border to return to San Diego, where he had lived for 25 years to unite with his wife and five children after he was deported. He was encouraged by border agents who brutally beat him and tapers while he was tied up with handcuffs until Rojas died of heart failure. His death was later ruled as a murder.

2012, in 2012, Democracy now! spoke with an eyewitness that recorded the film material of the fatal blows. This is Humberto Navarrete.

Humberto Navarrete: Anastasio coincides in handcuffs and two officers in uniform. And there were five officers nearby when I started taking up two uniformed officers. One of them had one of his knees on Anastasios neck. The other officer had one – the other knee on Anastasios lower back. I started to notice all of these details and the most important thing was that Anastasio did not resist. And then I decided to pull out my cell phone and record what you can see – what you can see in the first videos. And then I started to record.

Amy Goodman: The Inter -American Commission for Human Rights for the Murder of Anastasio Hernández Rojas comes almost a decade after his family has submitted a complaint. And this comes as President Trump's candidate to lead customs and border protection, Rodney Scott, and the criminal police in Rojas will be reported to kill the border agents. Democratic Senator Ron Wyden expressed concerns about the Senate Finance Committee in the past month during the hearing of Scott's confirmation.

Sen. Ron Wyden: In 2010 he headed the US border patrol in San Diego. In this position, a migrant was made that crossed the border CBP Officers and heavily beaten in their care. The man we mentioned, Mr. Rojas, died of these injuries and left his wife and five children behind. Instead of following the agency's directive and immediately transferring the incident to external investigators, the San Diego CBP The office started its own request. In the course of this investigation, CBP The officials drew by Mr. Rojas' death and physical evidence of court documents. In a campaign that the former head of CBP Interior matters, which described the disabled judiciary as illegal and possibly disabled, signed a summons to receive Mr. Rojas' medical documents, which then refused to publish the San Diego police department.

Amy Goodman: Rodney Scott still has to be approved by the Senate to lead customs and border protection.

Andrea Guerrero accompanied us for more. She is the managing director of San Diego Alliance.

Welcome back to Democracy now! If you can first talk about the meaning of the results?

Andrea Guerrero: Well, good morning, Amy.

The decision of the Inter -American Commission is a catalyst in the fight for dignity in the United States. It reveals the unchecked police powers in the United States and makes the United States for one of the worst violations of human rights for accounting to account for a lifespan and indicates US policy as poor and fatal. And that is a really important knowledge for us in the struggle for justice, in the fight for reform. This applies to all law enforcement authorities, the local police, to federal agents who are now called to change their ways

JUAN González: And Andrea, are there a direct or legal effect of the Commission's results on the USA on the US government?

Andrea Guerrero: The way in which the Inter -American Commission works is that it spends recommendations and up to and the United States meet these recommendations that remain in a surveillance status. The commission monitors the duration of its reforms. The equivalent to this in the United States would be a consent decree if a court takes a police department under his responsibility in a consent decree to monitor reforms to ensure that it uses reforms to avoid repeating the damage caused in the past.

And so we are pleased that the United States adhere to the commission's recommendations that are triple: one to reopen the examination of the agents involved in misuse, the torture, the killing of Anastasio and the cover -up. Second, repair the damage to his reputation and apologize to the family. And three to reform his laws and guidelines, namely their laws of operation and policy, to adapt to international human rights standards that restrict the use of violence on what is necessary and proportional. In the United States we have a unique standard that is unique in the world and enables the officials to apply violence if it is objectively sensible. This standard is far from the international standard of the necessary and proportional standards and has to change.

JUAN González: And the question of President Trump's pending candidate for the customs and border patrol Rodney Scott, which is part of this original cover-up, can you talk about the effects of this?

Andrea Guerrero: Yes. Unfortunately the CBP Commissioner candidate Rodney Scott is involved in the decision of the Inter-American Commission. Rodney Scott was responsible for the San Diego sector by Border Patrol, when Anastasio was killed, and he took part in the cover-up, mainly by monitoring the cover-up teams, which were called critical incident teams and were later dissolved because they never had a congress entitlement to operate, and due to the disability of justice that were involved.

In the case of Anastasio, Rodney Scott monitored these teams and their destruction of evidence, and he also approved an administrative summons with which Anastasios from the hospital were recorded. And the reason why this is important is that he knew that he started an immigration for a criminal case for law enforcement authorities in which he had no authority. It was an examination of his own agents and he used this administrative underload to acquire evidence or information about Anastasios medical records in order to reduce the liability of his agents.

Now everyone should know that administrative lectures are not carried out by administrative arrest warrants themselves. There are no arrest warrants, judicial arrest warrants that can force the evidence or a witness or a person during a search or an attack. And so this is a violation of the fourth change. It is a violation of federal laws that restrict administrative matters, and Rodney Scott has not done that. And I think what was worst in the hearing of the Senate last month was that Mr. Scott not only said that he approved an administrative summons in the course of a criminal murder examination that he was not a business, but that this was a common practice and is common practice. So you know how we see it is a person who does not recognize any abuse of power or is involved in abuse of power, no person who should hold power.

Amy Goodman: And we will see what happens. Again, the hearing was held for confirmation, but Rodney Scott has not yet been confirmed by the full Senate as head of the border and customs patrol. That does it for our show. Andrea Guerrero, we thank you so much that you are together with us, Executive Director of the San Diego Alliance. You can visit Democracysynow.org to see the reporting that we did when Anastasio Hernandez Rojas died. I am Amy Goodman with Juan González for another issue of Democracy now!