International Human Rights Body Holds United States Accountable for Torture and Impunity in Border Killing
In a groundbreaking decision on April 28, 2025, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) held the United States responsible for the killing of Anastasio Hernandez Rojas and shielding agents from liability. The Commission found Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents tortured Anastasio, used excessive force while he was restrained, discriminated against him, conducted a biased and incomplete investigation, and denied his family justice. The Commission has instructed the U.S. to reopen the criminal investigation of the agents involved and to reform its laws and policies to prevent future abuses by law enforcement.
The IACHR decision implicates Rodney Scott, Trump’s nominee to lead CBP, in the cover up. This moment is a critical turning point in the fight for dignity and human rights in the United States.
Overview
On November 4, 2022, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights heard arguments and testimony in a landmark case about systemic abuse and impunity in the nation’s largest law enforcement agency, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Family Members of Anastasio Hernandez Rojas vs. United States is the first case involving an extrajudicial killing by U.S. law enforcement to be examined by an international human rights body.
Roxanna Altholz, co-director of UC Berkeley Law’s Human Rights Law Clinic and Andrea Guerrero, executive director of Alliance San Diego (ASD), represent the family members of Anastasio Hernandez Rojas, who U.S. border agents brutally beat and Tased in 2010 while in custody, hog-tied, and lying on the ground, before the Commission. Border agents then concealed, destroyed, and tampered with evidence to obstruct the investigation. Although Anastasio’s death was ruled a homicide, U.S. federal prosecutors closed the investigation without pursuing criminal charges.
Anastasio’s case is the first extrajudicial killing case involving law enforcement to be decided against the United States by the Commission, and sets a precedent for cases of state violence currently pending before the human rights body, including the cases of Michael Brown, Rekia Boyd, Lesley Mcfadden, Sandra Bland, Sergio Adrián Hernández Güereca, José Antonio Elena Rodríguez, among others.
Media Coverage
Rodney Scott, Trump’s CBP Nominee, Accused of Covering Up Death of Mexican Father in CBP Custody, DemocracyNow. 5/6/25
Berkeley Law’s Human Rights Clinic director on Rodney Scott nomination, CBS 8 full interview, 5/1/25
Former San Diego Border Patrol chief faces scrutiny over 2010 in-custody death, CBS 8, 5/1/25
Human rights body finds border agents’ actions in death at California-Mexico border ‘constituted acts of torture’, The Mercury News, 5/1/25
Human rights panel finds border agents’ actions in San Ysidro death ‘constituted acts of torture’, The San Diego Union-Tribune, 5/1/25
Trump pick to lead CBP accused of ‘cover-up’ over death of man at California border, Los Angeles Times, 4/30/25
Trump’s CBP nominee questioned on immigrant’s death at confirmation hearing, The Washington Post, 4/30/25
International Tribunal Condemns U.S. Border Officials for Torturing, Killing Immigrant, Capital & Main, 4/30/25
U.N. slams U.S. border patrol, policing practices, San Francisco Chronicle, 11/8/23
Clinic helps bring U.S. law enforcement killing to international stage for first time, Berkeley Law, 11/10/22
Human rights tribunal hears testimony in immigrant’s 2010 death at border, CBS8, 11/4/22
Co-Director Roxanna Altholz argues case before international commission, San Diego Union Tribune, 11/4/22
Op-ed by Maria Puga, Rojas’s widow, El Universal, 10/25/22
Co-Director Roxanna Altholz quoted on NBC about Anastasio Hernández Rojas case against U.S., NBC-7 San Diego, 8/16/22
CBP disbands shadow police units, Washington Post, 5/12/22
Co-Director Roxanna Altholz on U.S. missing filing deadline in border killing case, San Diego Union Tribune, 12/1/21
“Shadow Units”: How secretive border patrol teams shield agents from accountability, Democracy Now, 10/29/21
Press Releases
Landmark Decision Exposes Systemic Human Rights Violations in the Case of Anastasio Hernández Rojas, Alliance San Diego and Human Rights Clinic, 4/30/25
Attorneys for Family of Anastasio Hernández Rojas Issue Joint Statement on Nomination of Rodney Scott to CBP Commissioner, Alliance San Diego and Human Rights Clinic, 4/28/25
Counsel for Anastasio Hernández Rojas call on the United Nations to review the deadly and deficient use of force standard in the United States, Alliance San Diego and Human Rights Clinic, 4/14/25
Widow and attorneys hold Mexico City press conference, Alliance San Diego and Human Rights Clinic, 10/25/22
Family calls for hearing before Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Alliance San Diego and Human Rights Clinic, 8/16/22
CBP eliminates Border Patrol cover-up units, Southern Border Committees Coalition, 5/6/22
Family files new testimony, Alliance San Diego and Human Rights Clinic, 2/4/21
International tribunal moves landmark CBP brutality case forward, Alliance San Diego and Human Rights Clinic, 7/30/20
Videos & Documentaries
Claiming Dignity in the Borderlands | Anastasio Hernández Rojas' Story (4/30/25)
Anastasio Hernandez Rojas – Día de los Muertos (11/2/22)
Impunity at the Border: Inside US Border Patrol’s ‘Cover-Up’ Unit (Al Jazeera report, 10/26/22)
Crossing the Line at the Border (PBS Need to Know report, 10/25/12)
