S3 EP01: A metal cross and a painful memory

After two criminal trials against Lonnie Swartz wrapped up in Tucson, Jose Antonio’s family turned to their civil lawsuit against the agent.  Swartz’s attorneys argued that the agent had qualified immunity from prosecution in the case because he was carrying out work for the federal government. They also argued the teen’s family had no standing to sue because Jose Antonio did not have strong ties to the U.S. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco allowed the family’s lawsuit to move forward. But another case from a Mexican family in Ciudad Juarez who was in a similar circumstance stopped any momentum.  In June 2010, Border Patrol Agent Jesus Mesa Jr shot and killed 15-year-old Sergio Adrian Hernandez Guereca along the El Paso and Ciudad Juarez border. The Guereca family also filed a civil lawsuit against Mesa, but the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision clashed with judges in San Francisco.  Because of the opposing decisions, the Supreme Court of the United States decided to review the case out of El Paso. This would settle the question about what happens when a U.S. Border Patrol agent shoots and kills someone across the border in Mexico. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a historic move, U.S. federal prosecutors charged Lonnie Swartz, a Border Patrol agent, with three separate charges in the shooting and killing of 16-year-old Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez.  The most severe of the charges was for second degree murder, that meant prosecutors believed Lonnie had intentionally killed Jose Antonio. It was now their responsibility to prove that in court.  Bringing Swartz to trial took more than six years. In March 2018, the month-long murder trial kicked off in Tucson, about 60 miles north of Ambos Nogales.  A jury of 12 men and women - plus four alternates - would decide if Swartz was guilty of the three charges against him and could bring an end to Jose Antonio's family journey toward justice.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It did not take long for the family of 16-year-old Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez to start putting pressure on U.S. authorities. They demanded that the U.S. Border Patrol release the name of the agent who had fired his gun from Arizona into Mexico in Ambos Nogales.  In July 2014, attorneys for Jose Antonio’s family filed a lawsuit in the United States on behalf of Araceli Rodriguez. The lawsuit accused the agent of violating Jose Antonio’s civil rights. The judge in the case would later order his name to be released to the public: Agent Lonnie Swartz.   After the shooting, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection faced questions from the public on its use of force of policy and the lack of accountability when investigating misconduct and wrongdoing.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A U.S. border agent shot 16 times through the gaps in the border fence in the span of 34 seconds on the night of October 10, 2012.  Ten bullets struck and killed 16-year-old Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez, who was standing on the Mexico side of Ambos Nogales, a binational community.  The border agent claimed someone was throwing rocks over the fence and that he fired in self-defense. Jose Antonio’s family disputes that it was him.  The shooting set Jose Antonio’s mother, Araceli Rodriguez, and grandmother, Taide Elena, on a quest to seek answers and justice for his death.  Details about what happened on the U.S side of the border would stay under wraps for years. In the meantime, Jose Antonio’s family mobilized to press the U.S. government to take action.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s been almost a decade since a boy in Mexico was shot dead by a Border Patrol agent in the United States.  His family couldn't believe it. And federal prosecutors didn't let it pass, even though Border Patrol agents rarely are scrutinized for excessive force. Recorded and retold in Spanish and English, these stories go beyond the killing of Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez in search of something still elusive at the border: justice. The ripple effects of the violence that night live on at the U.S.-Mexico border today.   Jose Antonio’s story, his family’s grief and persistence in seeking accountability for his death and how the international border affects life in the twin cities known as Ambos Nogales are the subject of a new podcast by The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com. It's called: “Rediscovering: Killed Through the Border Fence." Season 3 in the Rediscovering series launches Sept. 12.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Season two of Rediscovering, a podcast from The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com, explored the events leading up to and following the passage of Senate Bill 1070 in Arizona.  The 2010 “show me your papers” law was met with pushback from Latino organizers, grassroots activists, DACA recipients and more. That pushback didn’t end after SB 1070 was signed. Latino activists continued to organize. They pushed for voter registration. They rallied around local candidates. They helped elect Democrats like Sheriff Paul Penzone and Krysten Sinema. Now, the 2020 election has come and gone. For the first time since 1996, Arizona voted for a Democrat for president. Joe Biden’s narrow victory was the work of multiple voting blocs and a confluence of events that made for an unforgettable year and an election cycle that will be looked back on for decades to come.  In the immediate aftermath, we wanted to revisit some of the voices you heard in Rediscovering. In this epilogue, we’re bringing together two people from our show to discuss SB 1070’s effect on the election: Tony Valdovinos and Chuck Coughlin.  Valdovinos is a Democratic organizer and DACA recipient who was called to action by SB 1070. In 2010, Chuck was an adviser to Republican Governor Jan Brewer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Arizona’s Senate Bill 1070 took years of effort that culminated in a moment when the Legislature, the governor and the public — pushed by a terrible slaying agreed — to do something about illegal immigration, even if the White House and Congress couldn’t. Closer to the time of its passage, SB 1070 was popular and was a good way to win elections in Arizona. Russell Pearce, Jan Brewer and John McCain were all re-elected taking hardliner positions in 2010.  For better or worse, the law reshaped Arizona politics and set an example to others about the political potency of nativism and border security. But the Latino and migrant communities, those most directly impacted by those policies, have pushed back.  It’s a law that has galvanized a new generation of activists. Combined with Arizona’s rapid growth among transplants and Latinos, it helped make the state a political battleground in the 2020 election year. It’s a dramatic shift for a state that was reliably red in presidential elections for most of the past 64 years.  Today, running against SB 1070 and the politics of oppression is a good way to win elections in Arizona, even if the White House wants to change all that. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

While national leaders weighed in on the passage of Senate Bill 1070, on the ground in Arizona, it was already emptying neighborhoods. The grim exodus played out quietly all over the state.  To the rest of the country, the law served as a laugh track and spectacle. The images of Arizona as a racist, backward-looking state didn’t help its economy. Within weeks of signing the law, the state’s tourism industry counted at least two dozen events that were cancelled. A Scottsdale consulting firm estimated that in the four months after the bill became law, Arizona missed out on $141 million from conferences that had been canceled. It also cost the state about 2,700 jobs in that time.   When SB 1070 faced legal challenges, Gov. Jan Brewer had no question of what she would do next. Her legal team appealed the matter to the U.S. Supreme Court.  But the immigrants rights community in Arizona wasn’t through fighting. They began organizing.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For two decades and through three administrations, Arizonans waited for the federal government to solve the issue that many felt was right at their doorstep. They were left without a solution. Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama all tried to move the needle on immigration reform. They were unsuccessful. The unsolved murder of a Cochise County rancher, which was pinned on undocumented immigrants by authorities and echoed in mass media, exacerbated hostilities.   Meanwhile, Senate Bill 1070 had passed both Arizona chambers and was sitting on Gov. Jan Brewer’s desk. The political pressure weighed on the governor, who had to consider her upcoming re-election bid.  She could sign it into law, veto it, or let it pass by default without her signature. Nobody, not even her closest staff, knew what she would do.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The 1993 North American Free Trade Act, or NAFTA, put an estimated 2 million Mexican farmers out of business. Food prices in Mexico went up, while wages, after adjusting for inflation, declined.  The consequences of NAFTA and spiking unemployment from the peso currency crisis incentivized many Mexicans to head north to the U.S. in search of a better life. But with more people seeking opportunity in the U.S., human smugglers known as coyotes saw a lucrative opportunity. One in which vulnerable migrants would be exploited for the sliver of hope they thought possible in Arizona.   Those who made it to Arizona, however, were met with hostile state legislators intent on squandering any potential path to prosperity that may have existed for migrants. Those same legislators conflated migrants with exploitative smugglers. Latino citizens already living in Arizona beared the wrath of discriminatory legislation, racial profiling by police and racist behavior by peers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices