The Serafín Olvera Justice Committee was launched to demand the prosecution of the INS cops who carried out the beating. Olvera died from his injuries 11 months after the cop assault. If convicted, the three immigration agents face up to 10 years in prison and $250,000 in fines.

The INS—now the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, part of the newly organized Department of Homeland Security had launched a raid on the residence where Olvera and other workers were housed in Bryan, Texas, about 100 miles from Houston. The three agents on trial were part of a special squad of immigration cops that hunted down immigrants the government claimed had previous felony convictions, and thus faced immediate deportation.

The three cops—Carlos Reyna, Richard Henry Gonzales, and Luis Rey Gomez— doused the 48-year-old construction worker from Mexico and longtime resident of Houston with pepper spray in the course of the March 2001 raid. One jumped on Olvera while he lay on the ground, breaking his back. The cops denied him medical treatment for over 8 hours, and only did so after a nurse at a local INS station refused to place Olvera on a bus for deportation to Mexico because he was in critical condition. He was left a quadriplegic after the attack.

Reyna is charged with crushing Olvera’s neck, and Gonzales for spraying large quantities of pepper spray into Olvera’s eyes and face. All three are charged with withholding timely medical attention from Olvera.

Olvera’s supporters are organizing daily vigils in front of the federal courthouse in downtown Houston, and sending monitors to observe the trial and report back to those who can’t attend.

Two days before the trial began U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal ruled in favor of a defense motion to ban any mention to the jury of Olvera’s death in February 2002. The pro-police ruling came despite the fact that the Harris County medical examiner determined that the death of Serafín was the result of the injuries he sustained during the raid.

Martha Olvera, sister-in-law of Serafín and a leader of the Serafín Olvera Justice Committee, told the Militant during a May 14 vigil outside the courthouse, “we have scored a small victory already in the first day of the trial. Despite the motion, the judge told the jury that Olvera died 11 months later” while instructing them to disregard this in the deliberations.

Some of the workers that were immediately deported following the raid, who the Olvera family were able to track down in Mexico, will be called to testify against his killers. Several of the 12 agents involved in the March 2001 raid are testifying against the three cops facing charges. Lawyers in the case state that the trial could go on for a couple of weeks.

Socorro Olvera, the widow of Serafín, is a domestic worker who has campaigned along with Martha and other family members to convict the cops. A hand-lettered poster that she has used throughout the effort says, “Dicen que no son culpables, ¿entonces quién?” (They say they aren’t guilty, then who is?)

“This trial and protest is making people realize that this is a serious case--this is the only way you can get justice,” she said at the courthouse rally. Four of Serafín’s five children joined the protest.

Lawyers for the cops said that Serafín Olvera wasn’t given medical attention because the agents who carried out the assault had “evidence” that he was faking an injury to get disability benefits from Social Security. In fact, Socorro Olvera said, “Serafín had a severe leg injury he had gotten on a job, and the boss refused to pay anything. I was the only one able to work at the time and we covered everything. Later, we went to Social Security but they said he didn’t qualify.” The Social Security office submitted a statement denying the allegations of the cop’s lawyers, according to a committee monitor.

Martha Olvera told the Militant that the trial showed that, “We have to find a way to change this system that did what it did to Serafín. This for me has opened up the door in the fight for justice and already will put other cops on notice before they commit an abuse against one more human being.”
 
 
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