Oct. 27 – The son of Mexican immigrants who earned college degrees in criminal justice, former U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer Oscar Orrantia is now headed to federal prison for slamming a U.S. citizen into a wall at the port of entry in Columbus in 2019 and lie about it.
It wasn’t the first or last time Orrantia, 38, was violent with the public or abused his position as an inspector checking vehicles for contraband and immigration status, federal prosecutors alleged.
It’s just that the victim, 64-year-old Deming resident Anastacio Granillo, went to the American Civil Liberties Union for legal advice after an angry Orrantia pulled him out of his truck and slammed him into the wall of a building on June 18. vehicle inspection room. 2019.
Granillo hit his head against the wall and fell to the ground. When Granillo was unable to get up as ordered twice by the agent, Orrantia forcefully kicked him in the legs until other Customs and Border Protection agents arrived, according to court records. Granillo was treated at the scene by a summoned ambulance crew.
Orrantia then wrote a report “full of false statements in an attempt to avoid responsibility for his actions,” prosecutors argued. A federal jury in Las Cruces convicted him last December of deprivation of civil rights and falsification of records.
“People seeking lawful entry into the United States should not have to worry about being physically or verbally attacked in their attempt to gain entry,” wrote Assistant U.S. Attorney Marisa Ong, who sought a prison sentence of 78 months recommended.
U.S. District Judge Margaret Strickland settled for 20 months but refused to release Orrantia from jail pending his appeal to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. His sentence begins on Wednesday.
“Oscar Orrantia not only violated Granillo’s civil rights through his conduct, but his actions will have lasting consequences, making it more difficult for the public to have confidence in those charged with securing our borders and principled law enforcement everywhere” , said Ong. wrote.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Mexico filed criminal charges after learning of the excessive force allegations in a civil rights lawsuit filed by the ACLU on Granillo’s behalf in 2021. He received $125,000 in damages.
Prosecutors during the criminal trial presented evidence of at least three other “evil acts” involving the former officer. They include a similar confrontation on August 13, 2019, in which uniformed Orrantia pulled a motorist who did not understand English out of his car at the checkpoint, twisted his arm to cuff him and told the man to shut up. he screamed in pain. The man was not charged with a crime.
Orrantia was working at the checkpoint on June 24, 2020, when he took a mother of two out of her car and handcuffed her. She was eventually released as a CBP supervisor reviewed the incident.
In addition, Orrantia was off-duty when he stopped at a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint on Interstate 25 on Aug. 31, 2018. He was evasive and refused to answer a Border Patrol agent’s questions, prosecutors said. He showed his CBP badge, refused to allow a search of his vehicle and would not get out. He was placed in handcuffs after officers became concerned for their safety. That incident resulted in a five-day suspension from work without pay, prosecutors said in the lawsuits.
Orrantia’s attorney Brock Benjamin of El Paso told the Journal on Friday that his client did not use excessive force and that the jury should not have taken the other incidents into account.
“This was an example of the U.S. government overstepping its bounds,” Benjamin said, especially citing two other incidents for which Orrantia was “acquitted” and there were “no criminal charges.”
June 2019 incident
Arrests of Customs and Border Protection employees on civil rights charges have been rare in recent years; only two have been arrested or charged since 2021, according to agency data.
“CBP emphasizes honor and integrity in every aspect of our mission, and the vast majority of CBP employees and officers perform their duties with honor and distinction, working tirelessly every day to keep our country safe,” the website says of the agency.
Court records show the June 2019 incident began after Granillo and his cousin waited 20 minutes to enter the U.S. after visiting relatives in Mexico. After finally arriving for the inspection, Granillo suggested that due to the sweltering heat, another lane of vehicles could be opened for inspection. Orrantia’s answer: don’t cross.
During the trial, Matthew Harvey, deputy director of CBP’s Advanced Training Center in West Virginia, was asked if, as an agent at a border crossing, he would encounter people complaining about having to wait in line. “Always,” he replied. “You just uphold your professionalism. A higher standard is held to. Just because someone complains, officers are not allowed to use force.”
Testifying in his own defense, Orrantia accused Granillo of threatening him during the June 18, 2019 encounter. In the June 24, 2020 incident, he accused the mother of two of trying to break his fingers and punching his face when she opened her. car door to retrieve a document that had fallen in her car.
When Orrantia was asked during the trial whether he was known among colleagues as a hothead, he said, “Maybe. Yes.”
Dozens of letters of support for Orrantia were filed in federal court prior to his sentencing. All asked for leniency, including letters from three of his siblings who also work in law enforcement.
Orrantia graduated from New Mexico State University with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and worked for a time at the New Mexico Crime Victims Reparation Commission before joining CBP in 2013.
He is the youngest of seven whose parents immigrated to the United States in 1980. He was born seven years after their arrival.
“My family had nothing,” his older sister, Claudia V. Orrantia, wrote to the judge. “We spent a lot of time in Mexico, and I remember as a young child crossing the international bridges almost every weekend. I saw my parents treated terribly and spoken to as if they were criminals simply because they didn’t know the English language and did not have the right skin color.
She said her brother “made a mistake on the job. This doesn’t make him a bad guy or a bad person.”
She referenced other cases uncovered during the federal investigation.
“The three cases presented in evidence, including Mr. Granillo’s case, did not result in my brother being reprimanded, suspended, disciplined or even coached at the time they occurred. They were complaints from three of the thousands of people he had seen and processed. ten years into his career.”
One of the earlier incidents involved an “older gentleman who works as an ambulance driver in Columbus and speaks only Spanish,” prosecutors said in court filings.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Mexico opened an investigation into Orrantia in December 2021. Prosecutors had video of the June 18, 2019 incident at the Columbus Port of Entry, and Orrantia’s report on the incident.
“The only reason any video of the incident has survived is because the victim in the case … sought legal advice from the ACLU,” according to a document from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
That lawsuit prompted Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Professional Responsibility to review the incident and consult with the U.S. Attorney’s Office about possible criminal charges.
“That investigation was limited because CBP only retains videos of the port of entry for 90 days, and by the time the case was brought by federal prosecutors, nearly two and a half years had passed from the date of the crime that agent had committed. committed,” prosecutors said.
“Accordingly, the only evidence the United States was able to uncover regarding other potential misconduct by Orrantia toward the public was situations in which someone actually filed a complaint with his agency about his conduct.”
“During conversations with other port of entry agents, the United States learned that there were frequent complaints about Orrantia and its treatment of (vehicle) passengers. But because those individuals had not filed a formal complaint, it was impossible to track them down. ,” said the court filing by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Prosecutors stated that a “close examination of the manner in which he carried out his crime — i.e., switching from Spanish to English in a purposeful and performative manner while interacting with (Granillo) — implies that this was not an isolated incident.”
“The incident has plagued him (Granillo) since it occurred, and he reluctantly (and courageously) took the witness stand and testified against Orrantia,” prosecutors’ sentencing memo said.
“And granted, (Granillo) is a simple man. But that should not take away from the fact that his life was changed forever by what happened to him on June 18, 2019.”
– This story has been corrected to show Orrantia’s prison sentence begins Wednesday
