The sands of southern California’s Imperial Dunes shift with the wind, sometimes so subtly that within a year seemingly trusted landmarks will vanish like they were never there. It was here that one Border Patrol agent’s life was wiped out, but his memory has hardly diminished among friends, family and colleagues who are now asking the question: Why was his killer set free?

“Revenge really isn’t on anyone’s mind—having the actual perpetrator of this crime being brought to justice, that’s what we want,” said Ben Vik, spokesman for the Yuma Sector Border Patrol in Arizona. “We want the guy who did it.”

Agent Luis “Louie” Aguilar, 32, who was serving in the Disrupt Unit for the Yuma Sector, was patrolling the border at the nearby Imperial Sand Dunes recreation area on Jan. 19 when he was alerted that a red F-250 Ford pickup truck and a brown Hummer H2 had just crossed the border from Mexico at the dunes.

According to Vik, the vehicles had sped through the campground and north to the highway about two miles away, but then got spooked and turned back.

Aguilar and a fellow agent were back at the dunes laying down a spike strip in the road to thwart the suspected smugglers when the vehicles came into view. “There were civilians—off-road enthusiasts—in the area, and when the [Hummer] was coming toward Agent Aguilar’s position, a civilian started to enter the danger area. Agent Aguilar was attempting to warn them off when the Humvee veered from its direction of travel and ran Agent Aguilar down. He was killed instantly.”

Witnesses reportedly said the vehicle intentionally rammed into the agent at about 55 miles an hour, throwing the husband and young father “a distance away,” said Vik. The Hummer and pickup then fled back into Mexico. “[The other members of the team] went directly to Agent Aguilar.”

“It had quite an effect—it touched every agent here at Yuma sector. Louie was well liked and well known, respected. Again, one of those guys everyone counted on,” recalled Agent Weldon Boring, who also serves as the sector chaplain. “Losing someone as dynamic as Louie was a very big blow to us.”

TJ Bonner, head of the National Border Patrol Council, said Aguilar’s death “reverberated well beyond the Yuma Sector,” which is staffed by more than 900 agents. Reports abounded that he had been killed trying to protect the people at the recreation site, and campsites started to wave their own flags at half-mast.

“It was devastating to lose such a bright, promising young man in such a violent, senseless manner,” he added.

A killer set free

“Senseless” became the word of choice among the tight-knit Border Patrol community this summer when news broke in June that Aguilar’s accused killer was set free by Mexican authorities before the United States could extradite and charge him for his crimes.

“Quite obviously, it sparks a great deal of anger when a confessed murderer of one of your colleagues is allowed to walk free,” said Bonner in July. “[Mexico] was on clear notice that we had a very deep and abiding interest in making sure that individual was extradited to face justice in the United States.”

That “individual” is Jesus Navarro Montes, a 22-year-old also facing unrelated charges of border smuggling and human trafficking, according to news reports. He was picked in the Mexican town of El Yaqui three days after the incident at the dunes and charged with Aguilar’s murder as the driver of the Hummer.

Then, to the confusion of everyone, Laura Serrano, a Mexican federal judge in Mexicali, set Montes free on bail in June. The Mexican embassy claimed US prosecutors never requested extradition.

Justice thwarted

“We are shocked and appalled,” Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff stated after hearing Montes was now at large somewhere in Mexico. He promised that the department was working with the US Department of Justice and “a determined Mexican government” in “relentless pursuit of justice.”

Mexican officials were eager to present their side of the story.

“No arrest warrant was presented, no evidence was offered and no one from the US government contacted Mexican authorities concerning his extradition,” Ricardo Alday, spokesman for the embassy, told reporters July 14. “We couldn’t hold him with no evidence of a crime. We needed help, but we never got it.”

He added, however, that federal officials in Mexico City were unaware that Montes had been released, and that Mexico’s Attorney General had immediately vowed to re-arrest the man. Meanwhile, US authorities have been relatively silent on the extradition question, while a maelstrom of anger, fueled by demands for answers from Aguilar’s family, his coworkers—even Capitol Hill—refused to let the story die this summer.

Lawmakers demanded answers. “We understand there is an ongoing investigation; however, the information we are seeking should be publicly available as we are looking into the process of investigation and communication with the Mexican authorities,” said Rep. Brian Bilbray (R-Calif.), who is head of the Immigration Reform Caucus and in July demanded a “full accounting” of what went wrong by the White House and Justice Department.

As of mid-July, however, neither the White House nor Justice had complied, saying in two different letters to the caucus that providing more information on the case would compromise the investigation. A call by HSToday to the US Attorney’s Office in San Diego elicited a similar response.

“As with all ongoing criminal investigations, we cannot provide details with respect to the nature and timing of possible charges against any possible defendant or defendants,” US Attorney Karen Hewitt said in a statement provided by her office.

Meanwhile, Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-Tex.), who represents Aguilar’s hometown of El Paso, Texas, said he had personally spoken with the Mexican attorney general and planned to address the issue with Mexico’s Minister of Foreign Affairs at a conference in August. “As a former Border Patrol Sector Chief, I am especially saddened,” he told HSToday.