Public Comment

ABC 20-20 investigative reporters revealed horrific abuse by U.S. Customs and Border agents.

Newly released video footage shows U.S. C & B agents causing the death of a 16 year-old Mexican teenager, Cruz Velazquez, by forcing him to drink a bottle of liquid methamphetamine at a border checkpoint in San Diego.

Minutes after the teenager sipped on the liquid, his body began convulsing, and he screamed "my heart" in Spanish and then died. The officers were never disciplined. John Carlos Frey, two-time Emmy Award-winning journalist and documentary filmmaker said Velazquez’s case is just the latest example of rampant abuse and mistreatment by border agents. 

His new investigation is titled "Life and Death at the Border.” Speaking on ABC’s 20/20, Reyna Velazquez, Cruz's sister, said the Border Patrol agents were laughing as her brother was screaming in pain. The family was paid $1,000,000 in a wrongful death suit but there was no apology and no admission of wrongdoing.  

Earlier this year, the former White House Press Secretary, Sean Spicer, said the president wanted to "take the shackles off" the nation’s immigration and customs agents. The two female border agents were back on duty the next day waiting for their next victim.