On a crowded spring weekend in 2010, a young visitor at the San Ysidro Port of Entry hit “record” and captured a scene the government’s official story had not mentioned. Ashley Young’s camera shows a handcuffed Anastasio Hernández Rojas on the ground, surrounded by federal officers as they strike him and fire Tasers on him again and again. He died in a hospital days later. That short clip, and Young’s decision to come forward, would become a cornerstone in a long-running fight over force, transparency and accountability at the border.
Young’s footage reached a national audience in 2012 on PBS’s “Need to Know,” which helped connect the video with attorneys and investigators, according to archival reporting. The broadcast featured clearer images and audio that clashed with early official descriptions of what happened and pushed the case into the federal spotlight. Young was later interviewed by the FBI and testified before a federal grand jury. As detailed by Borderzine, the airing of the video helped trigger fresh scrutiny by investigators and advocates.
International Ruling Rekindled Push for Justice
In 2025, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights concluded that Hernández Rojas was tortured and killed and formally urged the United States to reopen its criminal investigation, a move advocates say validated what eyewitness videos had shown all along. The commission’s merits report lays out witness accounts, autopsy findings and what it describes as serious investigative failures that undercut transparency and the family’s access to justice. Lawyers and community organizations now routinely cite the ruling as they press for a new look at the case. The full findings are available from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and local angles are covered by the Times of San Diego.
Legal Fallout and Unanswered Questions
The Department of Justice closed its federal investigation in 2015 without filing criminal charges, saying prosecutors could not meet the demanding standard for civil-rights or homicide prosecutions, according to a department statement. That decision left the family’s civil case and public advocacy as the main remaining avenues for accountability. Critics have pointed to alleged mishandling of evidence, delays in notifying local police and gaps in the internal oversight of federal agents. Local advocates and some members of Congress have kept up pressure for a deeper review of what happened and for stronger checks on Customs and Border Protection conduct. Details of the federal decision are outlined by the U.S. Department of Justice, while recent calls for local action are reported by Courthouse News.
New Film Pushed the Story Back Into View
When director Rick Rowley’s HBO documentary “Critical Incident: Death at the Border” premiered in late 2025, it dragged the 2010 killing back into the spotlight. The film revisits the confrontation and internal agency records, weaving together interviews and archival footage, including bystander video, to question how CBP polices itself and how investigations were handled. Entertainment listings note the documentary’s December 29, 2025 debut and its role in reigniting the public debate over the case, according to Rotten Tomatoes.
What Advocates Want Next
Family members, attorneys and groups such as Alliance San Diego are now pushing for renewed criminal review, tougher rules on preserving evidence and deeper reforms to the way use-of-force incidents are documented and investigated. Advocates point to the Inter-American Commission’s recommendations, to inconsistencies in government timelines and to witness video that they say was critical proof that did not get full weight in the early days after the killing. Legal clinics and scholars have assembled extensive case files and policy proposals that advocates say should guide any new inquiry. For more detailed legal analysis and background, see work by UC Berkeley Law and reporting from Capital & Main.
In San Diego, the case remains both an old wound and a touchstone for debates over how federal agents use force and how they are held to account. The video Ashley Young recorded more than a decade ago changed how the community remembers one man’s death, and international and local advocates argue it should also change how the government responds. For additional coverage and primary documents, see local reporting in the Times of San Diego and the commission’s report.
