Migrants in El Paso and the Border Patrol have been making headlines across the nation in recent months. These headlines have become part of the presidential campaigns going into the November elections. El Paso officials have a complicated relationship with migrants on city streets. On one hand community officials like congresswoman Veronica Escobar and county commissioner David Stout hold press conferences and issue public statements in support of migrant rights while on the other hand community support for jailing migrants at the local jail remains a significant part of the community’s economic development. The county’s $92 million contract over four years to hold migrants at the county jail is so lucrative for the county, that Stout recently bemoaned the District Attorney charging migrants for rioting on state charge because it would result in losses for El Paso “if we have to move prisoners out [of the local jail] to accommodate these state arrestees.”
The migrants for local officials are both an economic development tool and political narratives for elections.
For El Paso officials, the numerous incidents of criminal activity by border patrol agents in El Paso, including sexual assaults, cross border shootings and assaults on migrants remains a federal issue.
City officials haven’t always ignored Border Patrol abuse on the city’s streets. On December 29, 1992, the El Paso City Council took the first step in holding Border Patrol agents accountable to El Pasoans. Led by Roberto Rojo and UTEP professor Melvin Strauss, the city council asked for community input on whether El Paso needed to “create a commission to record and hear grievances about Border Patrol activities” on city streets. [1]
Richard Molina, a Border Patrol supervisor at the time told the El Paso Times that the agency would not take a stance on the issue, because the federal agency acted “as a U.S. entity” and that the proposed commission “could only give advice.” Rojo, one of the organizers, however, said that the Border Patrol “should be accountable to our [El Paso] city.” [2]
The previous July, Rojo had presented a draft ordinance for the commission to the city council. The city council voted three-to-two in favor of looking “into complaints about Border Patrol confrontations” in the city. Voting against the measure were Joe Pickett and Stan Roberts. Chuy Terrazas was not present for the vote. [3]
The proposed commission would consist of 14 members. Each city representative and the mayor would each appoint two members to the commission. [4]
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On December 30, 1992, the city council voted to establish the Border Patrol Local Accountability Commission “to monitor and record alleged U.S. Border Patrol abuse along the El Paso-Juarez border.” City representative Stan Roberts was the lone dissenter. Joe Pickett, who previously voted against establishing the commission in July voted in favor this time around. [5]
City representative Tony Ponce told the El Paso Herald Post that the commission was needed “to have some monitoring of the Border Patrol,” adding that he didn’t “want another Nazi Germany here.” For his part, Joe Pickett told the Herald that although he voted in favor of the commission, he had some reservations, because he wanted “the commission to look into alleged abuses by other law-enforcement agencies and not restrict itself to Border Patrol agents.” Pickett added that the city council was on a “witch hunt.” [6]
Border Patrol Local Accountability Commission
The Border Patrol Local Accountability Commission held a panel discussion in February to discuss an immigration bill. [7]
Not much information other than the February panel discussion is available about the activities the commission may have undertaken. However, in April 1993 El Paso Border Patrol Chief Dale Musegades suddenly announced he was retiring, about a year earlier than his retirement date. Carlos Marentes had circulated a petition asking for his removal the month before. Reportedly they had collected about 2,000 signatures. [8]
Musegades, however, told the El Paso Herald Post that his retirement had nothing to do with the petition demanding his removal.
On April 13, 1993, the city council expanded the role of the commission and renamed it the Human Relations Commission.
The Commission Fragments
Although Melvin Strauss, one of the two founders of the commission had stated that the commission had been gathering information about Border Patrol abuse, there was little other information available showing whether the commission was functioning.
When Silvestre Reyes launched Operation Blockade, the predecessor to Operation Hold The Line in 1993, the commission had not been able to address the controversial operation “because only five members” of the group had been appointed by city representatives since it had been restructured as the Human Relations Commission. [9]
The commission appears to have fragmented after Reyes’ Operation Hold The Line took hold as information about the commission’s activities ceased to appear in newspapers of the time. It seems from the available record that the commission languished after its members were not appointed by city council members.
The reason for the commission, as articulated by its two proponents, was the numerous reports of abuse by Border Patrol agents in El Paso that were not being investigated.
Look for our report tomorrow: “El Paso’s Criminal Border Patrol Agents.”
Sources:
- Emily Jauregul, “Does Border Patrol need watchdog?,” El Paso Times, December 27, 1992, 1B.
- Jauregul, “Does Border Patrol need,” 1B.
- Jauregul, “Does Border Patrol need,” 1B.
- Jauregul, “Does Border Patrol need,” 1B.
- Raul Hernandez, “Politics fights Border Patrol abuse,” El Paso Herald Post, December 30, 1992, 1B.
- Herandez, “Politics fights Border Patrol abuse,” 1B.
- “Panelists will look at immigration bill,” El Paso Times, February 24, 1993, 2B.
- Peter Brock, “Chief denies retirement was forced,” El Paso Herald Post, April 8, 1993, A2.
- Peter Brock, “Groups steering clear of blockade chatter,” El Paso Herald Post, October 8, 1993, A3.