Full Repsonse to ruling – PDF
ANNUNCIATION HOUSE PRESS STATEMENT REGARDING THE RULING IN THE CASE OF SHOOTING DEATH OF JUAN PATRICIO PERAZA

El Paso, TX – July 29, 2008 – U.S. Magistrate Judge Richard P. Mesa delivered a verdict late last Friday in the case of Cesar Peraza Barraza and Ramona Irene Quijada Soto versus the United States of America, regarding the 2003 shooting death of Juan Patricio Peraza, at the time a 19-year-old national of Mexico, by Border Patrol Agent Vernon Billings.

The ruling concluded that Billings’ use of deadly force was justified, and that Peraza’s tragic death, therefore, did not result from negligence. Annunciation House, however, views Magistrate Judge Mesa’s decision as deeply troubling and bearing significant consequences for the El Paso and greater border community.

Indeed, in places like El Paso, where the harsh realities associated with grinding poverty and immigration are a lived experience for most, and where the ubiquitous presence of the Border Patrol figures prominently in daily life, it is of the utmost importance that matters pertaining to both are treated with meticulous care.

It is nevertheless clear that, in Juan Patricio Peraza’s case, this did not occur.

The trial evidence presented to the court was shaped to a significant degree by the numerous actions and violations of fundamental Border Patrol policy and investigative procedures that transpired before and after the shooting—such as staking out a homeless shelter, failing to ascertain basic information before applying deadly force, the removal of witnesses from the scene before they could be questioned by the El Paso Police Department (EPPD), and the failure to gather information at the crime scene.

Judge RICHARD P. MESA’S legal decision in the case of

CESAR PERAZA BARRAZA and,

RAMONA IRENE QUIJADA-SOTO,

Statutory Death Beneficiaries of

JUAN PATRICIO PERAZA, Deceased,

Plaintiffs,

v.s.

THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

Defendant

When law enforcement officers — the very individuals entrusted to uphold peace and safety — shoot and kill members of the community, a rigorous investigation into the origins of such an incident must be conducted.

The case of Juan Patricio Peraza is no exception.

Posted on August 2, 2008

U.S. Magistrate Judge Richard P. Mesa delivered a verdict late last Friday in the case of Cesar Peraza Barraza and Ramona Irene Quijada Soto versus the United States of America, regarding the 2003 shooting death of Juan Patricio Peraza, at the time a 19-year-old national of Mexico, by Border Patrol Agent Vernon Billings.

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Annunciation House presented its 2008 VOICE OF THE VOICELESS AWARD to Roy Bourgeois on May 17th.

Awarded the Purple Heart as an officer in the U.S. Navy, Roy Bourgeois was ordained a Maryknoll priest in 1972. Sent to Bolivia to work with the poosr, he was arrested by security forces and forced to leave Bolivia. His experience in Bolivia led him to understand the use of military forces to suppress efforts by the poor in Latin America to organize, unionize, monitor human rights and work for greater participation in government. He became aware that soldiers trained at the School of the Americas in Ft. Benning, Georgia, returned to their countries and committed human rights violations. He became an outspoken critic of U.S. foreign policy in Latin America, founding the School of the Americas Watch to monitor the conduct returning Latin American soldiers trained at the School of the Americas. Father Roy has spent over four years in U. S. federal prisons for nonviolent protests against the School of the Americas. The violence that soldiers trained at the School of the Americas used on their own people, especially during the 1980s and early 1990s, was a force that led to the exodus of hundreds of thousands of refugees from El Salvador and Guatemala, many of whom made their way into the U.S. In todays climate of severe hostility toward immigrants, the prominence of enforcement-only immigration policies, and an increasingly militarized border, we hold Father Roy Bourgeois as a powerful example of the tradition of witness, hospitality and justice to which the guests of our houses have called us.