A federal judge in Arizona has ruled that a Mexican family can sue the Border Patrol over the death of a 16-year-old boy who died in Mexico but was struck by bullets fired from the U.S. side of the border.
Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez, 16, was shot eight times in the back by Border Patrol Agent Lonnie Swartz on Oct. 12, 2012. Araceli Rodriguez, Jose’s mother, filed a wrongful death suit.
The Border Patrol argued through its agent’s union attorney, Sean Chapman, that Rodriguez had no right to sue in the United States because a Mexican national killed on Mexican soil is not entitled to protections of the U.