Excessive force at the border?

Photo by Wonderlane via Flickr

Over the years, I’ve reported many different stories on the U.S.-Mexico border. Not surprisingly they were often about drug trafficking and narco-violence, economics and trade, and illegal and legal immigration. When you spend time on the border you quickly realize it’s often its own world, one with its own rough and tumble rules. That said, some border stories still shock.

PBS’ “Need to Know” will air a documentary tonight that investigates the troubling death of a man on the U.S.-Mexico border near San Diego and asks whether the U.S. Border Patrol is becoming increasingly violent in its treatment of some undocumented immigrants it apprehends.

The film’s director, John Carlos Frey writes more in today’s Los Angeles Times:

By policy, border officials do not make their use-of-force protocol public. When they can fire a weapon and why is kept secret. With insufficient training and little public oversight, perhaps it’s no surprise that since May 2010, there have been at least eight documented cases of extreme use of force against unarmed and non-combative migrants resulting in death.

Watch the trailer below: