You’re HBO, and your latest launch is an explosive documentary about some of the controversial sectors of the USA authorities: the Border Patrol. What do you do to get it as a lot consideration as doable?
We’re seeing their technique play out proper now.
“Essential Incident: Demise on the Border” recounts the dying of Anastasio Hernández Rojas, a 42-year-old undocumented immigrant who died in 2010 days after immigration brokers handcuffed, beat and Tasered him close to the San Ysidro Port of Entry after attempting to deport him to Mexico. Border Patrol on the time stated they used pressure after Hernández Rojas, who had lived on this nation since he was 15, resisted them.
The case drew worldwide consideration and Hernández Rojas’ household acquired a $1-million settlement from the federal authorities, which declined to file prison costs in opposition to these concerned in his dying although the San Diego County coroner’s workplace dominated it a murder. Enter John Carlos Frey, a reporter who has pursued the story for almost 15 years and who is likely one of the protagonists in “Essential Incident.”
He knocks on the doorways of brokers who had been there when Hernández Rojas died, discovers footage that contradicts the Border Patrol’s official account and uncovers a secretive Border Patrol unit tasked with the “mitigation” of use-of-force incidents that was disbanded in 2022. The documentary consists of an interview with a whistleblower who claimed bosses instructed him to physician proof to exculpate the company within the dying of Hernández Rojas. It additionally alleges the cover-up went all the way in which as much as Customs and Border Safety commissioner Rodney Scott, who was Border Patrol deputy chief for the San Diego area when Hernández Rojas died.
Scott seems close to the tip of “Essential Incident” to dismiss these “allegations” and declines to remark about any culpability these concerned could have had, citing ongoing litigation. “This case from over a decade in the past was totally investigated and resolved by the Division of Justice and native regulation enforcement,” a Division of Homeland Safety spokesperson instructed the Occasions in an announcement after I requested for remark in regards to the documentary’s findings. “Efforts to malign CBP and ICE officers as lawbreakers are slanderous, irresponsible, and solely reveal the media’s eagerness to mislead the American individuals.”
“Essential Incident” is taut, disturbing, well timed and a brisk hour and a half. It deserves as many viewers as doable and a publicity marketing campaign as ubiquitous as what HBO is at the moment pushing for its hit hockey romance, “Heated Rivalry.”
As a substitute, the community launched “Essential Incident” on Dec. 29, when most Individuals had been misplaced in a haze of Christmas leftovers, “Avengers: Endgame” reruns and school soccer bowl video games. It’s not listed alongside different not too long ago launched documentaries on HBO’s web site, and I wasn’t capable of finding it on the community’s streaming app’s “Simply Added” tab.
Director Rick Rowley was diplomatic about his documentary’s “tough” launch date, saying he has “restricted perception” into HBO’s resolution. He’s nonetheless assured “this movie goes to have an extended life as a result of these [Border Patrol] points are solely extra urgent as the times move.”
Frey wasn’t as well mannered: “If I used to be an govt and launched it on that date, I’d be fired.”
Rodney Scott, then-nominee for commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Safety, arrives for a Senate affirmation listening to in April 2025.
(Stefani Reynolds / Bloomberg by way of Getty Photographs)
An HBO spokesperson pushed again on Frey’s criticism, stating, “The documentary was really launched throughout one of many highest utilization instances on the platform and we’re proud to say the movie is doing very effectively, even displaying up within the prime 10 rail.”
In growth for 4 years, Frey stated “Essential Incident” was imagined to air simply earlier than the 2024 election. He confirmed me a textual content message from a senior producer testifying to that. However HBO held on to it at the same time as a Senate committee grilled Scott about Hernández Rojas’ dying throughout his affirmation listening to final April, which isn’t included within the documentary. The documentary didn’t air even because the Border Patrol’s invasion of cities removed from the U.S.-Mexico border all through final yr made the story “Essential Incident” instructed extra related than ever.
HBO “buried it on function,” Frey, 56, instructed me over breakfast in Boyle Heights. He blames the present political setting — particularly, Netflix’s proposed $82.7-billion bid to amass HBO’s father or mother firm, Warner Bros., which federal regulators must approve. The very last thing executives desires to do proper now, Frey argued, is anger President Trump by selling a documentary that assaults his deportation deluge.
“They buried it on the worst day of the yr when nobody is watching, and naturally, they’re going to disclaim it,” Frey stated.
“That’s, after all, not true,” the HBO spokesperson stated .
Overlaying la migra is private for Frey, who grew up in Tijuana and Imperial Seaside with views of the U.S.-Mexico border fence. When he was 12, a Border Patrol agent approached his mom — then a inexperienced card holder — whereas her son was taking part in exterior.
“He wouldn’t imagine something she would say and wouldn’t let her go to our home to get her paperwork,” Frey stated. He’s of common top, deep-voiced and barrel-chested and tends to reply to questions with questions. “Why would he? The agent deported her.”
As an grownup, Frey started to cowl the Border Patrol in a post-9/11 period. Very similar to immediately, it was quickly increasing, and aggressive ways like breaking automobile home windows when the occupants weren’t resisting and agent-involved shootings had been endemic. The Hernández Rojas case entered his scope after somebody reached out claiming that they had footage of his dying.
“The unique narrative was Anastasio turned belligerent, they subdued him and he died,” Frey stated. “The case was closed, the Border Patrol had written it off.”
The supply was initially too scared to share their recording, however Frey ultimately satisfied them after forwarding his tales about repeated Border Patrol abuses of energy. What he noticed — a couple of dozen Border Patrol brokers circling a inclined, moaning Hernández Rojas, Tasering and punching him whereas onlookers scream at them to cease — left the reporter “disgusted.”
The footage ultimately aired on a 2012 PBS program, which made the story go nationwide. Frey’s continued work on the case ultimately caught the eye of Rowley, whose documentaries on neo-Nazi teams, the homicide of Washington Submit columnist Jamal Khashoggi and the Struggle on Terror have earned him Emmy wins and an Oscar nomination.
The documentarian needed to look at the Border Patrol’s impunity, and, he stated, “Anastasio’s story is likely one of the solely tales that takes you all the way in which to the highest. And it’s important to work with John in case you’re going to do the Anastasio case. He’s fearless.”
Rowley is happy with his remaining product however admitted that he’s “used to having extra press round a movie launch, particularly a couple of movie about … an important home difficulty within the nation, particularly within the final yr.”
That’s what angers Frey essentially the most in regards to the launch of “Essential Incident.”
“The tales I used to listen to — ‘Border Patrol broke my home windows, left me bloodied, grabbed me with out asking any questions’ — it’s now in neighborhoods,” he stated. He twisted a serviette, tossed it into the pile of twisted napkins subsequent to his espresso cup.
“It’s a deliberate alternative once you’re going to launch a documentary and the way. If I had been HBO and I had proof of a homicide by the feds, I’d’ve led with that inmy promotion. I’d suppose that’s a promoting level, particularly with the [immigration] raids. As a substitute, they’ve me hugging somebody within the trailer.”
Frey shook his head. “We made movie, however half the battle is getting individuals to see it.”
