The rulings were hailed as the “first of their kind” by the Houston Chronicle and other local media.

Olvera, a longtime Houston resident and Mexican citizen, was paralyzed in a March 25, 2001, raid on a home in Bryan, Texas, where he and other immigrant construction workers were living. After beating him and breaking his neck, immigration agents denied him medical care for more than seven hours, pepper spraying him and dragged him in and out of vehicles and transporting him to and from immigration jails and “processing centers.” He died in February 2002 after 11 months in the hospital, during which time he was in constant pain and unable to move or speak.

U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal sentenced Richard Henry Gonzales to 78 months in prison, Louis Rey Gomez to 41 months, and Carlos Reyna to 33 months. All three agents were also assessed modest fines.

The sentencing came seven months after a federal jury convicted the three men of acting with deliberate indifference for failing to get Olvera timely medical care.

The case was brought to trial only after a more than two-year campaign led by the Olvera family and the Serafín Olvera Justice Committee. This included protest actions publicizing the case in the United States and Mexico and pressing to put the cops on trial first for murder and then under Section 242 of the federal civil rights code, which states that law officers are prohibited from depriving people of basic rights. The committee organizers also came to the defense of other immigrant workers facing attacks in Houston and across the country. Their public actions continued through the sentencing hearing.

Even though the names of Olvera’s deported co-workers were not recorded in an attempt to prevent the tracing of any witnesses, family members gathered this information, traveled to Mexico, and convinced six of them to come to Houston to testify. The courageous testimony of these workers—who faced threats that “the same thing will happen to you” if they reported the beating—was key in preventing the agents from getting away with murder.

In a desperate, last-minute attempt to prevent their clients from serving time, defense lawyers for the three agents argued at the February 2 sentencing hearing that, while any imprisoned police officer is at risk from the prison population, immigration agents are the most hated and therefore their clients would be in “grave danger” if sent to jail.

Gonzales rose to make a personal appeal. He protested being singled out. “There were 12 agents involved that day,” he reminded the judge. And others were contacted during the day of the raid, he reported. “What about the agent that didn’t write down the names of those deported?” he asked. “I thought he was faking it,” he said by way of explanation for his dousing of Olvera with pepper spray while he lay paralyzed. “You may think me evil,” he said in his defense, “but there are those more evil than me.”

Martha Olvera, sister-in-law of Serafín and organizer of the justice committee, said she was glad to finally see the agents going to jail. “We have been working for justice. It has been a long and hard fight. I am glad to finally see some justice for Serafín.”

“I was hoping for a more severe punishment, but I am happy,” said Socorro Olvera, Serafín’s widow, as she left the court with her five children.

The U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas, Michael Shelby, said the convictions and sentences send the message that “this is a nation of laws.” Shelby added, “There is nothing pleasant about going after your own people.”

In a separate decision last week, a San Antonio federal judge approved a $2.15 million settlement in a lawsuit filed by Olvera’s family to be put toward education costs for his five children.

“This is important because it is not just about the terrible things they did to this one man,” said America Garcia, a Houston garment worker. “It is not just his family that is left without a husband, without a father. How many other families have they left with someone deported or killed?”  
 
 
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