Two Accuse INS of Bias in Barring Entry

A 15-year-old Mexican-American youth charged that he was physically abused and denied re-entry into the United States by immigration officers who apparently did not believe his claim of U.S. citizenship.

Rogelio Castro, a student at Bell High School, said at a press conference Thursday that an immigration officer confiscated his birth certificate, student body identification card and California driver’s permit and then, insisting he admit that the documents were false, struck him twice across the face with his open hand. The boy, who had no money on him at the time, was released in the middle of the night and said he walked for two hours before reaching an uncle’s home in Mexicali.

A similar charge of discrimination was offered by another U.S. citizen of Mexican descent, who said he and his wife, who was coming to Los Angeles for medical treatment, were denied entry and ultimately had to pay a smuggler $700 to help them across the border.

According to their attorney, Antonio Rodriguez of the Latino Community Justice Center, the two cases highlight a long-standing problem.

“We see the questioning of our citizenship as an example of racist discrimination and of the mentality among immigration agents and others who view us as foreigners in our own land,” Rodriguez said. “Anglo-Americans are not subjected to this kind of humiliation.”

Filed Cases

U.S. officials said they could not comment on the cases because they have not had a chance to review the complaints that Rodriguez said he filed two days ago with the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

But Robert Moschorak, associate commissioner for the INS Western Region, denied the discrimination charge and accused Rodriguez, a longtime immigrants’ rights advocate often at odds with the agency, of INS “bashing.”

“We refuse entry and detain people from all over the world. We don’t care about skin color,” Moschorak said.

He added that the complaints will be turned over to the Office of Professional Responsibility for review.

Rogelio Castro’s father, Nicolas Castro, said that when his son first told him about the alleged abuse by immigration agents in May, he “didn’t believe it was possible.” Although he knows his son to be a timid, serious youth--”not a troublemaker”--Castro noted that the entire family routinely crosses the Mexicali-Calexico border about twice a month to visit Rogelio’s grandparents.

‘And, we’ve never had a problem,” he said.

But when Rogelio did not waiver from his story weeks later, the family decided to hire a lawyer, said Castro, who works for a trucking equipment firm and has lived in the United States since shortly before his son was born.