I first noticed the video on November 28th on Bluesky. Immediately I recognized the area of multiple walls as the Chula Vista or Imperial Beach border area in San Diego. Only one call came from the press that day asking why a Border Patrol agent would intentionally run over someone who appeared to pose little threat to the agent. I told Telemundo the truth; it was because agents always get away with it. Some view it as a game. This is not uncommon and has happened all along the southern border for generations.
What was rare is that someone filmed it.
Although not an everyday occurrence, it is not uncommon for agents to use their vehicles as weapons. In October of 1977, San Diego Border Patrol agent Earl Ray Payne was charged with a misdemeanor assault with a vehicle for running over 26-year-old Alberto Herrera Mendez. Payne claimed he witnessed Herrera Mendez cross illegally, and that the man intentionally road his bicycle into the agent’s vehicle.[1] Even with two witnesses testifying that they saw Agent Payne hit Herrera Mendez several times with his service vehicle,[2] the county attorney dropped the charges over whether the case should be tried in state or federal court after just three days.[3]
A year later in San Diego, Agent William Doolittle killed 20-year-old Ustino Ucatero when he claimed he could not see him hiding in thick brush and tall grass, the most common reason given for running over migrants.[4] In 1979, Yuma agent James Gould gave the same excuse when he ran over 17-year-old Joaquin Rodriguez Rodriguez. Local media labeled his death a “mishap.”[5]
Back in San Diego, Agent George Harry Brunner was cleared after running over 14-year-old Luis Eduardo Hernandez. The agent claimed that Luis suddenly fell in front of his truck at 2:30 a.m. on August 20, 1989. While multiple witnesses stated that the truck was traveling at a high rate of speed and intentionally ran down the boy, local officials deemed it an unfortunate accident.[6] The US Border Patrol paid $50,000 to Luis’ parents in May 1991.[7]
In 2002, the Arizona Daily Star reported that an unknown Border Patrol agent ran over a Tohono O’odham Nation man killing him. Neither the name of the man nor the disposition were released by the media.[8] The only article written suggested the death resulted from the agent’s vehicle and not the agent driving the vehicle. This death begins the Border Patrol policy of refusing to release the name of the agent involved.
In March 2006, an unknown Yuma agent ran over two migrants, killing one and seriously injuring the other. Once again, the agent accused the victims of hiding in brush.[9] No disposition of this case could be located. Two months later in Hebbronville, Texas, the headlines would repeat themselves when another unknown agent ran over and killed another unknown migrant. The incident occurred on Morris Ranch, a full sixty miles north of the border. Although the driver claimed there were fifteen other migrant witnesses, none were apprehended.[10] No further information about this case could be located.
May 1, 2021, CBP (Customs and Border Protection) issued a press release titled, “Honduran national dies of vehicle incident near Kingsville, Texas.” Again, the agency claimed that “BPAs on foot and in vehicles continued to search the area which was covered with extremely thick and tall grass interspersed with groves of taller vegetation.” And again, agents felt they needed to drive their trucks through this thick vegetation even though years of doing so had proven deadly. This time, other members of the migrant group told the agents they had run over two people, killing one. The press release stated that the other migrant who had been run over was life flighted to the hospital and was released to the agency's custody with minor injuries. Neither the names of those involved nor the disposition of the case could be found.
These cases are a small representation of the problem; they are the few that the media discovered. This shows a pattern and practice of some Border Patrol agents intentionally running over migrants. I say intentionally because driving instructors at the academies have been teaching agents to not drive over tall grass or brush because we know migrants will hide in there. This was taught to me in 1995 at the academy. We were told about the stories from the 70s and 80s. Lest we wanted this on our conscious, we were warned not to do it unless it was an emergency.
But we kept doing it as the cases show.
The truth is that this occurs quite often. Mostly, victims are not hurt, or they do not realize they are hurt until days later. The San Diego video from November 2024 shows the victim who was hit returning to Mexico. That is how these “accidents” most often happen. Those who are injured and cannot run back across the border are most often treated by agency medics or taken to the hospital, discharged injuries are labeled as minor and then agents quickly push them back over the border so that they cannot file complaints.
For those who insist on filing complaints, for families who file civil court cases and demand justice, the Border Patrol has a system. The illegal Critical Incident Teams began conducting their own crash reconstruction investigations into agents using their vehicles as a “use of force” in the 1990s simply because it was occurring so often the agency was losing millions of dollars to lawsuit settlements.
December 3, 2017, in Nogales, Arizona, Border Patrol Agent Matthew Bowen used his service truck to hit Antonin Lopez Aguilar twice according to an affidavit from a special agent with the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General. The Arizona Daily Star quoted:
As Lopez ran away, Bowen quickly turned his truck and "accelerated aggressively into a position behind the running Lopez Aguilar — this maneuver put the front grille of the (truck) directly behind Lopez Aguilar," the special agent wrote.
As Lopez ran, Bowen "followed closely behind him, striking Lopez Aguilar twice" with the front of the truck.
With the first contact, Lopez "reached back while running and used his hands to 'push off' of the hood" of the truck. Seconds later, Bowen accelerated the truck "directly into the back of Lopez Aguilar's body, knocking Lopez Aguilar to the ground."
Initially, Agent Bowen claimed he did not know if he hit Lopez Aguilar, and that if he did, it was not intentional. But Bowen had a history of using violence against migrants according to court documents located on PACER.[11] On January 12, 2012, he was accused of pulling a man from his vehicle and forcibly putting him on the ground. No disposition of the allegation was given, nor any punishment given. March 16, 2015, Bowen tackled a migrant to the ground busting open his lip. Bowen received an “oral admonishment” after another agent said the tackle was not necessary. April 5, 2015, Bowen handcuffed a migrant who then fell several times trying to walk down a steep hill. The man alleged that Bowen picked him up every time he fell by his handcuffs causing “abrasions.” Another “oral admonishment was given.” September 19, 2015, excessive force is alleged by a juvenile migrant. The document stated that “numerous interviews failed to corroborate the allegation.” October 2, 2015, Bowen placed a handcuffed undocumented migrant on his ATV and then drove in an “erratic manner.” Again, this complaint was deemed “unsubstantiated.”
Once it became public that Agent Bowen often used racist terms for Latinos in his texts to other agents, and that he used the racist term only Border Patrol agents use for migrants, he decided it was best to plead guilty to a misdemeanor assault with a vehicle, agreed to resign from the agency and served six months of supervised probation. Agent Bowen is the only agent I know of who paid a price for running over anyone in a hundred years of the agency's existence. The last article written stated his victim, was left struggling to pay for his physical therapy.
***
I’ve seen too many videos of my fellow agents doing horrible things to be shocked anymore. Yet, the San Diego video disturbed me. Driving on those dirt and gravel border roads any faster than five miles per hour can feel like you are flying. I cannot count the number of agents I know who have been injured and killed because they were driving too fast. The agent down memorial page is proof enough.
On December 4, 2024, I posted on Bluesky about the November 2024 San Diego video:
Border Patrol run over case, look for “narrative control” from the union like: “this area is known for drug smugg” or “an agent was shot at near here.” This is to create the idea that the agent was in fear for their life. Press will echo. Make the agent the victim, & make the man hit, the aggressor.
The years since publishing my memoir have been spent reading and collecting everything I can about how my former agency gets away with incidents like these. Much like their rape culture, the Border Patrol management has created systems to protect the agency's bank accounts and those agents who commit these acts. Whether the incident is an allegation of assault, assault with a vehicle, a shooting, a pursuit crash…anything that the agency believes will garner media attention or allegations, the response follows the same pattern.
As an agent and an acting supervisory Border Patrol agent, I was trained as all agents are, to control the scene and immediately notify sector dispatch. Sector dispatches were then ordered to immediately notify the illegal Critical Incident Teams who almost always responded first. Prior to 2014, our Use of Force Handbooks ordered us to make sure our illegal amd secret forensic teams were called to the scene before the actual investigators from local sheriffs and police, to state investigators and even before the various federal oversight agencies of the Federal Bureau of Investigations, Office of Inspector General, or Office of Professional Responsibility. It was only once the 2014 Use of Force Handbook was forced to be public that the agency omitted any mentions of the secret teams although they continued to use them. This is a great example of how the illegal teams worked to obstruct justice, contaminate evidence, and tamper with witnesses and juries.
Border Patrol Critical Incident Teams make the scene match our narrative.
Once the narrative is set and everyone involved is told what the narrative is, the agency will send their press information officers (PIO) and the Border Patrol Union out to sympathetic press and tell them what the narrative is. The goal of the narrative is to portray the agents as the victims, and the injured party as the aggressor even when the evidence does not support this narrative. The citizenship of the actual victim does not matter to the agency, but it does help the narrative if we can claim they entered the country illegally, if we can find a criminal record on them, if we can show the agent was somehow injured in the incident even if it is a minor scrape, or if we can show the victim had drugs in their system. If these exist, the Border Patrol will use the PIOs and union to leak this information to the press.
The problem with the San Diego video is that it was published on social media before the agency had created the narrative, perhaps before they even knew there was an incident as it is not clear the agent ever reported it. The video clearly shows a Border Patrol agent racing down the border road, not braking as he neared the men and aiming his vehicle for the man he hit. There was plenty of room for the agent to stop, plenty of room to drive around the men.
It appears intentional.
In this case, the use of force does not match the perceived threat. When this happens, the agency must create fear in the agent’s mind to justify this force in a court of law. Often, the agency will suggest without any evidence to reporters who will print anything the agency says that the victim was a “suspected smuggler” or that “the area was known for shootings, rock throwing or narcotics smuggling.” Media rarely fact checks these statements, and it only takes one outlet to print it before many other outlets copy it.
On October 8, 2024, a local CBS channel aired the video. Border Patrol and CBP had no response.
Like clockwork on December 7, 2024, Ali Bradley of News Nation, who is often seen hanging around Border Patrol and its union, released what she called a “memo” that alerted agents of possible cartel violence in retaliation. Only the picture she used in her article was not a “memo” but an actual screenshot of a “Law Enforcement Sensitive/For Official Use Only” internal document meaning that someone within the agency likely leaked this to her. Nowhere on the image does it show that this document was unclassified. The “Law Enforcement Sensitive/For Official Use Only” does not have a strikethrough to denote it is available for public release. No official from the agency or its parent agency, CBP, has come forward on the record and made any statements similar to this document.
Importantly, this “memo” is dated December 5th and states that the cartel has ordered the shooting of Border Patrol agents in the Imperial Beach and Chula Vista areas in retaliation against the agent hitting the man with his vehicle. Bradley writes, “Border Patrol believes the individual involved was a cartel member.”
And just like that, the narrative is set.
There has been no proof that this man was a cartel member. No proof that the cartel made these threats. Just unnamed Border Patrol agents making accusations that is then repeated by Bradley, and has since been repeated again and again by other outlets. Now that the agent is the victim and suggestions that agents may become future victims, the union will reiterate these talking points on the larger media outlets in the upcoming months to remind everyone that the agency's preferred narrative is that the agents are the victims and the migrants are the aggressors.
In a time of social media disinformation and agents acting as pundits on right-wing media, the environment becomes saturated with only the agency’s narrative. And the agency is fine if reporters like Bradley put out information with unnamed sources whether it is true or not. They will not confirm or deny her reporting. If the case goes to trial, the illegal Critical Incident Teams now reconstituted to be legal under CBP's Office of Responsibility and not coincidentally led by former Border Patrol agent Daniel Altman, will continue to respond first and make sure the narratives stick or that the evidence is so poorly collected it cannot be used to determine guilt and any civil judgements will be less than they should be if they occur at all. And so, I imagine this agent will get away with running over this man as well.
It has been five weeks since the Border Patrol and Ali Bradley released their cartel hit warning. There have been no reports of agents being shot at by cartel in that time, and that is because it is once again propaganda put out to influence the media, public and potential jurors. However, on December 24, 2024, around 11:30 p.m., a Border Patrol agent ran over an "elderly man" and killed him in Escobares, Texas. The agent reportedly refused to cooperate with local investigators and instead called his union attorney and a supervisor for the Critical Incident Teams to come and investigate as the agency's policies dictate.
***
I started writing this piece long before this latest incident occurred. I know agents do this intentionally and far more often than it is reported. In organizing my thoughts, I realized how much this topic has always distressed me. And then it dawned on me that I am also a victim of vehicular assault by a Border Patrol agent. As documented in my memoir, I was intentionally run over by an agent at my station after I came forward about being raped by a classmate in the academy. My punishment was not for being raped, but for complaining about it. It was intentional because he had waived for me to cross the road before he turned onto it, because he literally had to turn so sharply that he was in the wrong lane when he gunned it and slammed into my body, because he told me to shut my mouth before other agents arrived to assist me.
This was never reported to the media. The agency could not deport me like they do to most victims. I was quite young and not interested in complaining. I had just learned what complaining about my rape had gotten me. I was grateful the agency paid for my medical bills and kept me employed while my injuries to my left arm and right leg healed. I was never quite the same after that, physically or emotionally. I never got a settlement, and it would take many more years to understand the system of how all this works. Whether you are a migrant or an agent, if you are on their list, you just might be run over, and they will get away with it.
Twenty-nine years later, I wake each day with sciatic pain in my right leg. I am unable to run long distances like I used to, and am finding it more difficult to walk without pain as I age. I wonder how the man in San Diego will feel thirty years from now.
Notes:
[1] Quintana, Jose, “Deportation Attempt Propriety Questioned.” El Paso Times, October 12, 1977, page 7.
[2] Ontiveros, Manny. “Border Patrol agent’s case to be tried in federal court.” El Paso Herald-Post, October 18, 1977, page 15.
[3] “Border agent’s charge dismissed.” El Paso Times, October 19, 1977, page 19.
[4] “Man in hiding killed by car.” The Los Angeles Times, August 19, 1978, page 9.
[5] “Border Patrol’s mishap; dead youth’s parents sue.” Tucson Citizen, April 16th, 1980, page 37.
[6] McDonnell, Patrick. “Police absolve border agents in boy’s death.” The Los Angeles Times, October 17, 1989, pages 86, 89.
[7] Hernandez et al. v. USA, Southern District Court of California (San Diego), #89-CV-01769- E-RCM, retrieved 12/4/2024, PACER.com.
[8] “Border Patrol vehicle kills O’odham man near Sells.” Arizona Daily Star, April 12, 2002, page B5.
[9] “Authorities: Border agent runs over, kills migrant.” The Arizona Republic, March 8, 2006, page 29.
[10] “Border Patrol runs over, kills migrant.” The Marshall News Messenger, May 19, 2006, page 3A.