Abuses

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No Action Taken: Lack of CBP Accountability in Responding to Complaints of Abuse

One of the most revealing findings of this report concerns the prevailing lack of action taken by CBP officials in response to the complaints received.

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All Abuses Content

  • Blog

Why Are More Pregnant Women Being Held in ICE Detention?

September 26, 2017

Pregnant women held in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody are required to be released, as detention frequently leads to extreme stress, depression, and in some cases,...

  • Blog

U.S. Immigration Officials Frequently Use Coercive Tactics to Deport Mexican Migrants

September 20, 2017

U.S. immigration officials have a long history of overstepping the boundaries of their legal authority and violating the constitutional and other legal rights of migrants at the Southwest border....

  • Blog

More Immigrants are Dying in Detention, and the Government Wants More Facilities

August 24, 2017

The Administration’s efforts to massively expand immigration detention in the United States are already evident in Texas, where a for-profit prison company is building the largest complex in the...

  • Blog

Civil Rights Concerns Continue Over 287(g) Immigration Enforcement Program

August 22, 2017

Racial profiling often runs rampant in communities that have mobilized their law enforcement officers to act as immigration officials, with the Hispanic community frequently faring the worst. A...

  • Blog

Border Patrol Abuses Rarely Result in Any Serious Disciplinary Action

August 2, 2017

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the nation’s largest federal law-enforcement agency, has a long history of violating constitutional and other rights of both immigrants and U.S. citizens...

  • Blog

Trump Administration Targeting Immigrant Children Is a New Low

July 27, 2017

The recent trend of broadly labeling unaccompanied immigrant children as criminals and gang members is just the latest in a series of attacks on some of the most vulnerable individuals in the U.S...

  • Blog

Groups Sue U.S. Government for Turning Away Asylum Seekers

July 12, 2017

Men, women, and children fleeing persecution, grave violence, and even death arrive daily at Ports of Entry (POE) all along the U.S.-Mexico border and present themselves to U.S. Customs and Border...

  • Blog

Supreme Court Sends a ‘Dangerous Message’ by Not Finding Bush Officials Liable in Post-9/11 Abuse Case

June 21, 2017

A bare majority of the Supreme Court ruled on Monday that six former immigrants of Arab or South Asian descent—all but one of whom are Muslim—cannot sue high-level U.S. officials over policies...

  • Blog

Congress Lowers Hiring Standards for Corruption and Abuse Plagued Border Patrol

June 7, 2017

The House of Representatives passed The Anti-Border Corruption Reauthorization Act  (H.R.2213) on Wednesday evening. The measure—which passed the House by a vote of 282-137, which includes 51 yes...

  • Blog

The Dire State of Immigration Detention in Georgia

June 6, 2017

Recent deaths at immigration detention centers in Georgia have made one fact disturbingly clear: detainees’ rights are being violated, with life and death consequences. These tragedies are not...

  • Blog

How Immigration Enforcement Is Eroding Your Privacy

March 13, 2020

The United States has pursued aggressive increases in immigration enforcement over the past two decades across several presidencies. Congress has allocated increasing resources during this period...

  • Blog

Supreme Court Rules Parents of Slain Teenager Can’t Sue Border Patrol Agent Responsible for His Death

March 2, 2020

The Supreme Court affirmed the dismissal of a lawsuit seeking damages from a U.S. Border Patrol agent who shot and killed a teenager across the U.S.-Mexico border. With this latest decision in the...

  • Blog

The Fight to Stop ICE From Destroying Records About Deaths and Abuse in Its Custody

February 19, 2020

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) plans to destroy thousands of records documenting horrific treatment of immigrants in the agency’s custody. The records contain vital details about...

  • Press Release

Federal Court Finds Conditions in Customs and Border Protection Detention Facilities Unconstitutional

February 19, 2020
A federal court ordered U.S. Customs and Border Protection to overhaul the way the agency detains people in its custody in the Tucson Sector. The court found that the conditions in CBP holding cells, especially those that preclude sleep over several nights, are presumptively punitive and violate the U.S. Constitution.
  • FOIA

FOIA Requests to Preserve Records Regarding Civil Rights Complaints and Records of Deaths and Abuse in ICE Custody

In December 2019, the National Archives approved a schedule for destruction of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) records which slates numerous categories of documents addressing...

  • Blog

Customs and Border Protection Officials Are Allowed Full Anonymity Under FOIA—and That’s a Blow to Government Transparency

February 14, 2020

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)—the largest law enforcement agency within the Department of Homeland Security, with tens of thousands of officers charged with policing our borders—is...

  • Amicus Briefs

Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center v. Wolf

Publication Date: 
January 31, 2020

The American Immigration Council and the American Immigration Lawyers Association submitted an amicus brief in Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center v. Wolf, a case filed by the American...

  • Press Release

Trial Challenging Unconstitutional Conditions in Customs and Border Protection's Facilities in Arizona Ends

January 23, 2020
During the course of the trial, a federal judge heard from qualified experts who testified on the inadequate medical care and severe conditions inside CBP detention centers.
  • Blog

On Trial: Inhumane Conditions in Customs and Border Protection Facilities in Arizona

January 15, 2020

After more than four years of gathering evidence of the substandard conditions in the government’s short-term detention facilities in Arizona’s Tucson Sector, a case challenging these conditions...

  • Press Release

Immigration Groups Challenge Inhumane Conditions Inside U.S. Border Patrol Detention Facilities in Court

January 13, 2020
The trial in a legal challenge to the horrific conditions in U.S. Border Patrol's short-term detention facilities across the Tucson sector, filed in June 2015 by immigration groups, begins on Monday, Jan. 13 at the U.S. District Court in Tucson, Arizona.

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