Dear Friends and Allies:
On Monday evening, 14-year-old Sergio Adrian Hernandez Huereca was shot and killed by a Border Patrol Officer at an international bridge near downtown El Paso, Texas. The boy was unarmed, but the officer claims he used deadly force in self-defense. Meanwhile, witnesses claim that Sergio was running from the agent when lethal bullet struck his head..
Currently, the Federal Bureau of Investigations in El Paso, Texas, is investigating the incident, and you can view their press release here.
However, we are calling on the White House to conduct an independent investigation of the killing.
- We demand an investigation that doesn’t start by equating the issue of immigration with border violence and drug trafficking.
- We demand the Obama administration to understand that there is a human rights crisis on the border and the overwhelming majority of immigrants crossing into the U.S. are victims, not perpetrators, of that crisis.
- We demand President Obama to stop appeasing the far right fringe with enforcement-first immigration policy (he recently promised 1,200 National Guard Troops and a request for $500 million for border enforcement).
Instead, the President should endorse legislation that provides a path to citizenship for the estimated 12 million Americans in Waiting currently living and working in the US without political equality. Furthermore, the President should unequivocally end the local enforcement of immigration law that is criminalizing our immigrant communities.
Violence is the inevitable result of dehumanization. When people are deemed "illegal," when entire communities are criminalized, and when the border is militarized, then it's easy for society to look the other way when a 14 year old "illegal" boy gets shot in the head by Border Patrol.
Tell President Obama:- “Stop militarizing the border, and start leading the fight for a humane and practical immigration reform package!”; and
- “Call for an independent investigation of the killing of young Sergio!”
Sincerely
Pablo Alvarado
National Day Laborer Organizing Network
