Hernandez v. Mesa

In 2010, U.S. Border Patrol agent Jesus Mesa Jr. fatally shot 15-year-old Mexican national Sergio Adrian Hernandez Guereca. Mesa fired from the U.S. side of the border in El Paso, Texas, striking the unarmed teenager on the Mexican side. The victim's family filed a civil lawsuit in U.S. federal court seeking damages under the Bivens doctrine, alleging a violation of the Fourth Amendment. The district court dismissed the case, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed, holding that Hernandez lacked constitutional protections as a Mexican citizen on Mexican soil. The Supreme Court granted certiorari and, on June 26, 2017, issued a 5-4 decision declining to extend Bivens to a cross-border shooting, emphasizing separation of powers and foreign policy concerns.

The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, held that no Bivens remedy is available for a cross-border shooting, affirming the dismissal of the lawsuit and declining to extend the implied cause of action to this novel context.

Whether the family of a foreign national shot and killed across the border by a federal law enforcement officer standing on U.S. soil may bring a Bivens action for damages under the Fourth Amendment, given the cross-border context and national security implications.

The ruling underscored an accountability gap for U.S. border agents using lethal force across international lines, strained diplomatic relations with Mexico, and intensified public and human rights debate over the limits of constitutional protections and the qualified immunity doctrine in border zones.