WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th February, 2020) The United States Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that the family of a teenage boy killed by a US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agent along the southern border cannot seek damages in US courts, according to a court filing.
The court in a 5-4 ruling said that the family of 15-year-old Mexican Sergio Adrian Hernandez cannot sue the Border Patrol agent because the teenage boy was in Mexico.
"A cross-border shooting claim has foreign relations and national security implications. In addition, Congress has been notably hesitant to create claims based on allegedly tortious conduct abroad," Justice Samuel Alito, one of the court's five conservative judges, wrote in the ruling.
In 2010, a border patrol agent standing on the American side of the southern border fired his weapon after a group of Mexican teenagers were allegedly throwing rocks at him while he apprehended one of boys from the group. One of the bullets struck and killed Hernandez, who was on the Mexican side of the border.
The agent said the boys were attempting to illegally cross into the United States, but the family argued that the boys were playing a game that involved running to the American side of the border and back.
The incident occurred along the US-Mexico border between the Texas city of El Paso and the Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez.
