Family of Mexican Teen Fatally Shot by US Border Patrol Agent Can Sue, Judge Rules The Associated Press
go to original July 10, 2015

Araceli Rodríguez is the mother of José Antonio Elen Rodríguez, who was 16 years old when a US border patrol agent killed him in a cross-border shooting in 2012. (Zuma/Rex_Shutterstock)

The mother of a Mexican teen killed by a US border patrol agent in a cross-border shooting can continue a lawsuit in the case, a federal judge has ruled.

The civil rights case against Agent Lonnie Swartz over the death of 16-year-old José Antonio Elena Rodríguez will go forward after US district court judge Raner C Collins denied a part of his motion to dismiss the case.

An attorney for Swartz argued that Elena Rodríguez was not protected by the US constitution because he was in Mexico at the time of the shooting.

In a similar case in Texas, a federal appeals court ruled that a teen killed in Mexico by a border agent in El Paso was not protected by the constitution. But Collins wrote he respectfully disagrees with that finding.

“The court finds that, under the facts alleged in this case, the Mexican national may avail himself to the protections of the fourth amendment and that the agent may not assert qualified immunity,” Collins wrote.

The ACLU filed a lawsuit on behalf of the boy’s mother. Elena Rodríguez was in Nogales, Sonora, near a border fence when Swartz shot him from Nogales, Arizona, on 10 October 2012.

Read the rest at The Guardian

Related: Mexican Immigrant Farmworker's Family Files $4.76m Claim Over Washington Fatal Shooting (The Nation)

Related: Can Kate Steinle's Family Sue San Francisco Over Its Sanctuary City Policy? (Fox News)

Related: Case Dismissed Against Immigration Agent Accused of Assault (The Washington Times)

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