Plan To Put National Guard At Border Frightens West Texas Town By Alicia A. Caldwell ASSOCIATED PRESS
8:42 p.m. May 13, 2006
REDFORD, Texas – The last time the U.S. military posted troops on the border near this tiny cluster of farms and ranches, an 18-year-old goat herder was shot to death.
Hardly a day passes that Esequiel Hernandez Jr.'s family and neighbors don't think of May 20, 1997, the day a Marine corporal shot and killed him.
With President Bush considering plans to deploy National Guard troops along the Mexican border, Hernandez's family is worried that other border residents or even his nephews, who tend goats along the same rugged West Texas desert where he was killed, could be the next victims.
“There was no motive for them to (shoot) Esequiel and I worry that the same thing could happen, or worse,” his grandfather, 79-year-old Valerio Pando, said in Spanish.
It is widely speculated that President Bush will unveil a plan to send troops to the border during a Monday night speech about immigration reform. Details of the plan are unclear but at least one defense official estimated that thousands of troops could be deployed as part of a security initiative.
The last time area residents saw the military working on the border in their Big Bend region town, the Marines assigned to an anti-drug mission were explaining what led to Esequiel Hernandez's death.
At the time of the shooting, the military said the teen, who was carrying a .22-caliber rifle, fired twice at the camouflaged troops and raised his gun to fire a third time when Cpl. Clemente Banuelos shot back. Hernandez's family disputes that account.
Several months after the shooting, a grand jury declined to indict Banuelos. But a congressional review of the incident later criticized the U.S. Justice Department for its handling of the case. Similar anti-drug patrols involving the military were suspended after the shooting.
Dianna Valenzuela, a 54-year-old farmer who lives in the area and knows the Hernandez family, said bringing troops back to the border in any capacity is a recipe for disaster.
“Wherever the military is, they are trained to shoot first and ask questions later,” Valenzuela said.