The reforms also included the creation of a National Use of Force Review Board, to thoroughly vet shooting incidents and then publish the findings on a timely basis.
"They've made a lot of progress on the suite of reforms," says Gil Kerlikowske, commissioner of CBP at the end of the Obama presidency. "But I think they've let some things go and I think there's certainly more that can be done."
Kerlikowske, who was brought in to improve CBP's transparency and accountability, believes the reforms are unfinished.
"I'm very concerned about the timeliness of the process. What is the outcome of an investigation into the use of force? Was that use of force justified, and explain it," he says.
CBP counters that if justice is slow, it's because these things take time.
When there's an agent-involved shooting, first of all, state and federal prosecutors have to decide whether to file charges. Only then does CBP begin its own lengthy investigation. Those results then have to be approved by the agency's lawyer, the chief of the Border Patrol, and, finally, the commissioner. All of this has to happen before the results can be posted publicly.
"We do have the charge of making sure that that the investigation is done in a purposeful manner, not being rushed," says Joseph Westmoreland, a director with CBP's Office of Professional Responsibility.
He points out there were three interim commissioners in the course of 12 weeks earlier this year, and that slowed things down.
"Recently, the issue is there's been a change in executive leadership within CBP," he says. "So in that transitional phase some of these cases got held up at the commissioner's level in the review process."
Westmoreland says the agency should be releasing the results of at least six more shooting investigations in the coming weeks.
But after seven years, the Guillermo Arévalo shooting hasn't even made it to CBP's internal affairs office. It's been sitting on a desk at the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. Prosecutors there still haven't decided whether to bring charges or decline the case.
NPR asked a Justice Department spokeswoman, why the lengthy delay? Her response: "DOJ declines to comment."
Ed Chung used to work at DOJ's Civil Rights Division as a prosecutor; he's now at the Center for American Progress. Chung understands these kinds of cases are complex.
"But certainly seven years from the time a particular case comes to the attention of an investigating agency to the time where a decision is made is just way too long," he says.