Media Must Carefully Scrutinize Abuses by U.S. Border Patrol

Victims of police brutality typically remain in the public consciousness long after cases that made them famous fade from the airwaves and headlines. Rodney King, Oscar Grant and Sean Bell will forever be remembered as symbols of police abuse. Rarely, however, does the public hear about men, women and children who have been abused or killed by U.S. Border Patrol agents.

Human rights activists contend that these agents aren’t held accountable for their actions because they are part of the Department of Homeland Security, a designation that seems to give them a license to operate outside the law. Some agents administer a brand of frontier justice that would not be tolerated in metropolitan areas or if their victims were white, rather than usually Latino.