Abuses
National Wave of Complaints Highlights Rampant Abuse by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Dire Need for Reform
Washington, D.C. – Over the past week, an alliance of immigration groups, private attorneys and a law school clinic joined forces in filing complaints targeting abuses by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) across the country. Ten damages cases have been filed alleging unlawful CBP conduct in northern and southern… Read More
Hieleras (Iceboxes) in the Rio Grande Valley Sector
These accounts reveal the dehumanizing conditions to which these women were subjected while in Border Patrol custody. Read More
Indictment of Border Patrol Agent for Murder Provides Some Much-Needed Accountability
Justice was served on September 23, when a federal grand jury indicted Border Patrol agent Lonnie Swartz for the second-degree murder of 16-year-old José Antonio Elena Rodríguez in Nogales, Mexico, in October of 2012. Rodríguez was shot at least eight times. Seven of the bullets hit him in… Read More
New Report Depicts Ongoing Abuses by Border Patrol
Deported migrants suffer a range of abuses at the hands of Custom and Border Patrol agents, according to a new Kino Border Initiative (KBI) report. The report relies on original surveys of Mexican migrants that were deported to Nogales, Mexico during the second half of 2014 and the first… Read More
Way Too Long: Prolonged Detention in Border Patrol Holding Cells, Government Records Show
Each year, the Border Patrol, a division of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), holds hundreds of thousands of people in detention facilities near the southern border that are extremely cold, frequently overcrowded, and routinely lacking in adequate food, water, medical care, and access to legal counsel. Although CBP intends… Read More
Challenging Unconstitutional Conditions in CBP Detention Facilities
The class-action lawsuit complaint alleges that Tucson Sector Border Patrol holds men, women, and children in freezing, overcrowded, and filthy cells for days at a time in violation of the U.S. Constitution and CBP’s own policies. Read More
Documenting Ongoing Border Patrol Abuses
Last month, following a five day trial, a United States district court ordered the United States to pay almost $500,000 to Jesus Castro Romo, for injuries he sustained after a U.S. Border Patrol agent shot him in the back. Mr. Castro had been walking through the desert when a Border… Read More
Report Documents Evidence of Migrant Shakedowns by Border Enforcement
Imagine what it would be like to be in a foreign country, and law enforcement officials take your phone, identification and money. Then, what if you are moved through a series of short-term holding cells and then longer term detention facilities and eventually released by being deported to another country… Read More
Reports of Sexual Abuse at Family Detention Center Follows History of Abuse Allegations
Immigrant women held at a Texas family detention facility allege that guards have sexually abused and harassed them, according to a complaint legal groups filed with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) last week. Lawyers say at least three employees at the Karnes County center “are suspected of… Read More
Children in Jail: What It’s Like for Immigrant Families Held at Karnes, Texas
This summer, tens of thousands of Central American families fled violence to the U.S. southern border. The administration responded by accelerating deportation proceedings, converting government facilities to family detention centers, and then prioritizing the detention and removal of families. First, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) turned the Federal Law… Read More
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