EDINBURG - The lead plaintiff and attorney in a landmark civil rights case held a press conference at a state senator’s office Monday to contrast their lawsuit with recent allegations of racial profiling along the border.

In 1991, Benjamin Murillo, a Bowie High School football coach, was stopped without justifiable cause by two Border Patrol Agents and had a pistol pointed to his head. Other students, faculty, and South El Paso residents who suffered similar abuses joined the class action suit.

Bowie High School, in El Paso, is a stone’s throw from the Mexican border.

“In the Murillo lawsuit we successfully sought an injunction to stop Border Patrol from subjecting teachers, students and staff from warrant-less searches and abuses,” attorney Albert
Armendariz, Jr., lead counsel in the Murillo, et al. v. Musegades, et al., case, told the Guardian.

“The constitution is the supreme law of the land and it prohibits people from being stopped just because they look like they come from another country.”

Armendariz said in the Murillo case, the Border Patrol argued that the constitution was suspended along the border. “They thought they could do whatever they wanted. They cannot,” he said.

Judge Lucius D. Bunton wrote in his decision in the Murillo case, “. . . the illegal and abusive conduct of the El Paso Border Patrol was directed against Plaintiffs, staff, and residences in the Bowie High School District solely because of their mere immutable appearances as Hispanics.”

Armendariz said he saw “remarkable similarities” between the Murillo case and what was happening in El Paso County today. El Paso County Sheriff Leo Samaniego has been accused of setting up roadblocks and raids aimed at rounding up illegal immigrants.

“There have been so many complaints, including sheriff’s deputies stopping buses and demanding identification,” Armendariz. “They don’t make these raids in the country clubs. They only do it in low income neighborhoods.”

Samaniego has denied the accusations but the complaints have led state Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, D-McAllen, to write to Gov. Rick Perry over the matter. Hinojosa, chair of the Senate Hispanic Caucus, wants to know if federal monies have been unlawfully used to fund the operations. Perry has since asked U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton to look into allegations of civil rights violations.

Hinojosa made his complaints after receiving a report by the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition. The report accuses El Paso County Sheriff's Department of using Operation Linebacker money to conduct unlawful raids in hotels where undocumented immigrants stay.

Operation Linebacker is an initiative developed by the 16-member Texas Border Sheriff's Coalition to increase law enforcement presence along the Texas-Mexico border. Perry gave almost $10 million from the federal Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Program to boost Linebacker. Previously, JAG funds were used on Texas’ scandal-ridden and now defunct regional drug task forces.

“Senator Hinojosa has every right to raise questions about these racial profiling allegations and how Linebacker money is used. Every right,” said Ana Yañez Correa, executive director of the TCJC.

The Murillo-Armendariz press conference was held in the El Paso district office of Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso.

“When immigration stops are made away from the Rio Grande, what is probable cause for a stop, detention and interrogation -- simply the color of one's skin?” Shapleigh asked.

“Unless laws clearly define who gets certified, who gets trained and who oversees those with the power to arrest, then in restaurants, on the streets and in the schools, Americans will be stopped, detained and interrogated just for 'looking Mexican.’”

Shapleigh said the Murillo suit was a landmark case that would have a major impact on current racial profiling complaints, not only being made in El Paso but also Maricopa County, in Arizona, and Laredo, Texas.

“When the roadblock is at the school at 7:30am, what is really going on? When a passenger bus is stopped, and all the questions are to passengers asking for ID, not to the driver about his driving, what is really going on?” Shapleigh asked.

“What is really going [on] are stops, detentions and interrogations based solely upon the color of one’s skin. In America, our constitution says that is against the law. We need to take a strong stand right now to stop it.”