Border Patrol missing key video in a migrant death case
US Border Patrol agents stand in front of the U.S. side border patrol check point as they close a border fence in Nogales, Arizona, on Oct. 5, 2016. (Joshua Lott/AFP/Getty Images)
Border Patrol agents stand in front of the U.S. side border patrol check point as they close a border fence in Nogales, Arizona, on Oct. 5, 2016. (Joshua Lott/AFP/Getty Images)
(JOSHUA LOTT/AFP/Getty Images)
NEW YORK (Fortune) – In the summer of 2014, Border Patrol agent Ricardo “Chuy” Cordero was on patrol with his partner, Border Patrol Agent Miguel Angel Trevino. They were on their way to the San Diego sector when they spotted a young adult with long hair and a backpack walking south toward a fence. It wasn’t long before Cordero realized he hadn’t seen any other people. Trevino radioed that he had seen him.
But in the minutes since Trevino had reported seeing the young man, the man had disappeared from sight and his identity remained unknown. So, for nearly two weeks, Cordero and his partner watched the same spot and watched the same area. Then Cordero and Trevino returned to the checkpoint to check their radio tapes; they hadn’t seen any movement on the tapes.
Finally, in mid-July, Trevino spotted the man again. Cordero said he wasn’t sure Trevino had seen him, and Trevino thought he had mistaken a dog.
Trevino radioed that he had spotted the man’s bag on the other side of the fence and identified him as the same young man who had been walking south on July 12. Cordero went to the area, found the bag and made sure it was the same man. And they were both certain he was the same man