United States Charged with Human Rights Abuses for Killings at U.S.-Mexico Border

On October 1, 2020, attorneys at Hilliard Shadowen LLP and Hilliard Martinez Gonzales LLP filed a petition with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to hold the United States accountable for the cross-border killings of multiple Mexican citizens.[1] The Petitioners are family members of six victims killed by U.S. Border Patrol agents. The victims include 16-year-old José Antonio Elena Rodriguez, who was shot in the back 10 times, Guillermo Arevalo who was picnicking with his wife and daughters along the Rio Grande, and four others. The death of 15-year-old Sergio Hernández sparked a Supreme Court case in which the court ruled that Hernández’s family could not sue the border patrol agent who killed Hernandez.[2]