Some are questioning the purpose and tactics of the Border Patrol's Critical Incident Team
Download mp3 (10.69 MB)Last June, 37-year-old Marisol García Alcántara left Nogales, Sonora, to cross the border illegally into the U.S. She was looking forward to reuniting with her mother and a brother she hadn’t seen in 16 years.
Soon after crossing into Arizona, a Border Patrol officer pulled over the vehicle she was traveling in. The events that followed are murky, but the stop ended with the officer shooting the unarmed mother of three in the head.
Nogales police arrived to investigate, but Customs and Border Protection refused to provide any information regarding the shooting. The agency’s Critical Incident Team then showed up to clean up the scene.
García Alcántara survived the shooting and returned to Mexico, but last month, she filed a claim against the U.S. government, beginning the process of filing a lawsuit.
To this day, no one has explained to her why she was shot, what kind of investigation followed the shooting or even the name of the officer who shot her.
Eileen Sullivan has written about concerns surrounding the agency’s Critical Incident Team, as well as use-of-force incidents and a seeming increase in high-speed chases involving Border Patrol agents.
Sullivan covers the Department of Homeland Security for the New York Times. The Show spoke with her about what's happening.
