by the El Reportero‘s wire services
A U.S. Border Patrol agent has been formally accused of assaulting a 15-year-old migrant detained in southern Arizona, authorities said Friday.
“The Border Patrol agent was sent by the court to our offices yesterday for us to take his photo and fingerprints,” Tony Estrada, sheriff of Santa Cruz County, told Efe Friday, adding that he hadn’t heard of a case of an immigrant being attacked like this for “a long time.”
The agent, identified as Aldo Arteaga, 35, must appear in court on charges of aggravated assault as a result of the Jan. 30 incident at the Border Patrol facility in Nogales, Arizona.
The investigation and accusation of Arteaga have been handled by the Border Patrol’s Office of Internal Affairs, for which reason Estrada said he had no knowledge of exactly what had happened.
Local media have said that the teen is a Mexican citizen, though Efe tried unsuccessfully to confirm his nationality with several consulates of that nation in Arizona.
The charges brought against the federal agent come at a time when the Border Patrol faces a series of accusations of turning a blind eye to the reported deaths and abuses of undocumented immigrants at the hands of its agents on the Mexican border.
