Report accuses Border Patrol of routinely abusing detainees

'No More Deaths' group spent more than three years interviewing deported immigrants.

By Lynn Brezosky
lbrezosky@express-news.net

BROWNSVILLE — Arizona human rights group “No More Deaths” has documented some 30,000 incidents of abuse to illegal immigrants in the custody of the U.S. Border Patrol, according to a report the group released Wednesday.

The mistreatment occurred across the U.S.-Mexico border, said Katerina Sinclair, a co-author of “A Culture of Cruelty,” a study based on 31/2 years of interviews with immigrants deported to Mexico.

“By this point, the overwhelming weight of the corroborated evidence should eliminate any doubt that Border Patrol abuse is widespread,” the authors wrote. “We believe our findings demonstrate that the abuse, neglect, and dehumanization of migrants is part of the institutional culture of the Border Patrol, reinforced by an absence of meaningful accountability mechanisms.”

Customs and Border Protection spokesman Bill Brooks said Border Patrol agents “were required to treat all those they encounter with respect and dignity.”

“This requirement is consistently addressed in training and consistently reinforced throughout an agent's career,” he said in an email. “Mistreatment or agent misconduct will not be tolerated in any way. Any agent within our ranks that does not adhere to the highest standards of conduct will be identified and appropriate disciplinary action will be taken.”

It was unclear whether CBP planned to investigate the report's allegations.

The allegations included immigrants being denied food and water, not being returned money, cell phones and other personal effects; needless separation of family members; and deportation of women and children to some of Mexico's deadliest cities in the dark of night.

Requests for asylum have been ignored, the authors said, and detention cells were either frigid or sweltering, with public service jingles about death in the desert playing over and over.

The group said its own efforts to save lives by putting out food and water in the desert have been thwarted, with Border Patrol agents slashing water bottles and dumping food on the trails.

“We didn't go out looking for these stories; they came to us and were absolutely inescapable,” said Hannah Hafter, one of the authors.

The study, based on interviews with 12,895 immigrants, concluded that conditions hadn't improved since the group's 2008 report “Crossing the Line.”

What had changed was the proportion of migrants with spouses and children in the United States and few ties to Mexico.

“Now the vast majority of the people that I'm speaking to have lives in the U.S. and don't have the same roots in Mexico,” Hafter said. “I cannot believe how heartbreaking it is, to be sitting next to someone literally on the steps or sidewalk and to be helping them make a phone call ... they're asking, ‘Did you do your homework tonight?'”


(2011-9-22/mysanantonio.com)