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…