NBC 7’s Shelby Bremer spoke with the family about the traumatic experience.
Cell phone video shows border agents at the San Ysidro Port of Entry with their guns drawn on a family returning home from a funeral in Mexico Thursday, in what the family said was a case of mistaken identity as the agents searched for someone with a common name.
Joshua Durazo said he’s been crossing the border several times a month for his entire life. He was returning from his cousin’s funeral Thursday with several family members when the trip took a turn.
“I handed the lady all of our paperwork, and when I handed her the paperwork, she looked immediately at two officers, and she said yes,” Durazo said. “She nodded her head and said, 'Yes.' And the two officers and herself immediately ran behind all the vans, and they started getting everyone out of the vehicles.”
Durazo said the officers drew their weapons and told everyone to get out of the car, one by one, including two children and his 75-year-old aunt who had just laid her son to rest.
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“It was terrible. The worst part is seeing the kids, you know, getting detained with guns drawn,” he said. “Honestly, I was really scared for my kids, you know. That's the hardest part.”
Customs and Border Protection has not responded to requests for information, including questions on protocol for these kinds of encounters as well as if the agency is investigating this incident.
“Words can’t explain, you know? Knowing that the guns are there at them and you can’t do anything about it, stop them,” Durazo said. “I really wanted to yell something out or run away, get closer to them, but I was scared that if I did that, someone was going to get shot.”
Durazo said the agents made him remove his shirt and get on his knees. The video shows the agents telling family members to walk backwards with their hands up towards them. Durazo said each family member was handcuffed and they were taken to a holding tank, where he found out they were looking for a man named Jorge Gonzalez – his cousin’s name, but also a common one.
“They said that his name was pretty common and that it was matching a name that they were looking for. So they said that it wasn't him, but they were going to do fingerprints to try to eliminate him from having any of his problems anymore, and that's it. And they let us go,” Durazo said.
“I think it's ridiculous. I think they should have done a better job. I think we have a lot of technology that should help them pinpoint the exact people,” he continued. “They just stereotyped him, you know? They just said by the name, and they took us all down for it, which is uncalled for.”
Durazo said his aunt was so overwhelmed, she had to be rushed to the hospital.
And his son – a 15-year-old football player and Muay Thai fighter – was so traumatized, he hasn’t been able to return to school since.
“That breaks my heart,” Durazo said. “He’s won championships, gone all over the place, he was about to go to Thailand soon, and now he's just broken down.”
Durazo said he has to return to Mexico to care for his goddaughter, his late cousin’s 5-year-old girl. But this has changed his approach.
“Honestly, we're scared of going to Mexico. And it's not to go to Mexico. It's actually to come back,” he said.
Durazo said he wanted to speak out about his family’s experience in part because it could happen to anyone with a common name.
“They could have a basic name, John Smith, it could be a regular different name and that’s, I mean, who they’re looking for and they could be impacted the same way as us,” he said “It’s the worst thing you could have, have your kid be aimed at without being able to defend them or do anything about it.”
Civil rights lawyer Joseph McMullen isn't involved in this case, but he has represented many people against CBP, recently winning a $1.5 million judgment for a 9-year-old girl agents falsely imprisoned for 34 hours at the same port of entry in 2019.
He says he has questions about this latest incident.
"The justification for that level of force to be used needs to be something that is reasonable and that, in my view, would have to be pretty darn compelling to do that to a child and to a 75-year-old woman," McMullen said. "I have a problem that they haven't told you that there is an investigation that's going to happen, and that it's going to happen immediately."
McMullen's says Durazo's family deserves answers, and CBP deserves scrutiny.
"That is a big ask of the family to just take it on faith that Customs were doing the right thing," McMullen said. "I believe that given their track record, I don't know if they're entitled to all that faith."
