ALBANY – A federal judge said he finds it “altogether plausible” that a U.S. Office of Border Patrol policy of rewarding agents for arresting immigrants living in the country illegally could have led to the improper detention of a U.S. citizen with an Hispanic surname whose suit is pending before him.
Northern District Judge Lawrence Kahn rejected a government motion to remove Kevin Oaks, the agent-in-charge of the Border Patrol’s upstate New York regional office, as a defendant in Gerardo Vazquez-Mentado’s claim for violation of his Fourth and Fifth Amendment constitutional rights over his arrest and detention in Oswego in 2009.
