Commentary:
By Herman Baca
Committee on Chicano Rights, (CCR)
The stopping, detaining, and the senior citizen abuse of 96 year old ex.-Governor (1974-77), of Arizona, Raul Castro along with his wife and Ms. Anne Doan (driver) by the U.S. Border Patrol raises legal and constitutional questions that the CCR has requested the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate. The history of the U.S. Border Patrol… the agency was organized in 1924 and is the only national police force in the U.S. The agency was created specifically to deal with persons of Mexican ancestry and was modeled after the infamous Texas Rangers that served as the private army for Texas cattle barons and agricultural business interests. Their primary enforcement job was to insure that no person of Mexican ancestry (citizens, documented, or undocumented) got to “uppity” and started to demand the same rights, wages or working conditions as their Anglo counterparts. Since 1924 that law enforcement job has been carried out nationally by the U.S. Border Patrol.
Bert Corona, Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzalez, Cesar Chavez and numerous others have rightfully labeled the U.S. Border Patrol, “the Gestapo of the Mexican People.”
On June 15, 2012 the Border Patrol “Gestapo’s” actions (a daily occurrence to thousands of Mexican) was exposed for the world to witness when 96 year old ex.-Governor of Arizona, Raul Castro, wife and Ms. Anne Doan (driver) were stopped, and detained in violation of their constitutional rights, resulting in criminal senior citizen abuse against Gov. Castro. According to the Border Patrol reason for detaining Gov. Castro at the checkpoint in Tubac, Nazizona was, “a radiation sensor was triggered,” and stated Ms. Doan, “we appeared as a nuclear threat.”
With the Supreme Court legalizing the “show me your papers” provision of SB 1070, the stop represents a portend of the treatment 50 million Chicano/Latinos in the U.S. can now expect from the Border Patrol, and Nazizona Joe Apario type local and state police. Arizona’s Governor Jan Brewer’s statements that “there will be no racial discriminations,” and “no one’s civil rights will be abused,” today sound more ridiculous and bogus.
The CCR has called on U.S. Attorney Eric H. Holder, Jr. to investigate, file charges and prosecute guilty Border Patrol agents on the following:
1. The detainment of 96 year old Governor Castro and him being labeled a “nuclear threat” by the Border Patrol, and Nazizona official’s refusal to believe that U.S. President Barak Obama’s birth certificate is legal, or is a U.S. citizen. One has to question if the President and a Governor are not believed; what chance then (even George Lopez or Eva Longoria) do the rest of us have to prove to white supremacist law officials that our documents are valid and we are “legal?”
2. If the law requires Border Patrol that, “agents must identify and resolve all sources of radiation, regardless of the circumstances,” why didn’t as Ms. Doan stated, “It was interesting that the agents never asked for my identification, and I was driving the car. Maybe I was the nuclear threat?” The stopping of Gov. Castro as per Ms. Doan’s statement proves that radiation was not the issue, but is just another blatant case of Border Patrol abuse of power, and racial profiling!
3. The illegal and shameful senior citizen abuse of 96 year old Gov. Castro by U.S. Border Patrol agents? According to Ms. Doan in a correspondence (partial) to the Nogales International News, “We were asked to step out of the car. I asked if he could remain seated in the air-conditioned car because it might be too hot for him. I explained to the agent he had undergone a medical treatment the previous day and it must be the solution that set off their system. They said he had to stay under the tent, in 100-degree heat, while dressed in a suit. I explained that he was a former governor and ambassador a true statesman and that he was 96 years old and that he shouldn’t have to be going through this. At that point I was begging them to leave him alone. They brought out a document for him to fill out and sign. They had a machine they ran up and down his body front and back. Finally they released us and walking back to the car they stopped him and said they had to see his identification. We were standing out in the sun, Gov. Castro reached for his identification and showed it, they registered the information and released us, again. I was helpless and overwhelmed by the incident. I felt the agents had no regard for the governor’s background, age or physical condition. I was embarrassed as I watched the governor being needlessly treated like a nuclear threat, especially because they knew he had just had a treatment at Tucson Heart Hospital the day before. I felt he was being disrespected as a senior citizen. I am sorry, but in America, Americans should be able to drive from one city to the next without being detained and questioned by other Americans simply to file paperwork.
4. Lying by Border Patrol officials. Gov. Castro and Ms. Doan stated the Governor was detained for 40 to 45 minutes, Border Patrol officials claim it only lasted 10 minutes? Who’s lying?
5. Was Gov. Castro politically targeted because of his opposition to Arizona’s controversial SB 1070?
On the other hand, Gov. Castro must have suffered from a heat stroke and was delusional when he publically stated, “I don’t think being Hispanic had anything to do with it.” He is correct; the Border Patrol did not stop Gov. Castro because he was Hispanic… they stopped him (like 1000’s of others), because he was a brown MEXICAN! Would the Border Patrol have stopped Nazizona’s Gov. Jan Brewer, or ex-Governor Janet Napolitano?
Unfortunately Gov. Castro knows exactly why he was stopped, since he had been stopped and almost arrested (see salon.com) two other times by the stumbling Border Patrol.
1. “Nearly half century ago, working on the front fence of his Tucson horse farm in his work clothes, Castro was stopped by a passing Border Patrol car. The agents asked if he had his work card. Castro said no. When they asked whom he worked for, Castro referred to “the señorita inside.” The agents nearly arrested Castro until he showed them the sign by his farm entrance: “Judge Castro.” A former Pima County prosecutor, Castro had become the first Latino Superior Court justice in the state in the 1960s.
A decade later, the Border Patrol struck again.
2. “One day my daughter and I returned to Arizona and were stopped by Border Patrol. ‘Hey, where were you born? I wasn’t about to lie. I was born in Mexico, I said. The guard starts questioning me. ‘What about that young lady?’ She was born in Japan, I said, during the Korean War. He thought we were being smart. He didn’t want to let us go. In the meantime, someone came by and recognized me. Governor, how are you?”
In closing, “If the U.S. is not a Police State now, it soon will be!” Who will be next?