Mid-June, 2022

The Nogales, Arizona-based Kino Border Initiative (KBI) reported that “Border Patrol agents continue to use COVID as a pretext to expel or deport migrants at night, despite previous Local Repatriation Agreements developed for migrant safety.”

* Testimony from arriving migrants and Kino staff confirm that hundreds of migrants have been expelled to Nogales, Mexico between 12AM and 3AM during the last two weeks. 

* Individuals arriving at Kino earlier this week after being deported at 3AM reported that they had not slept since they were detained. 

* Eliseo [Name changed to protect privacy], a middle-aged Mexican man who wanted to seek work in the US so he could save up to return to his hometown and finish constructing a church there, was deported to Mexico with a group of migrants around midnight. Since he did not have anywhere to go, he and about a dozen other migrants slept in the park downtown.

— “June 23 Update on Asylum, Border, and Deportations from KBI” (Nogales: Kino Border Initiative, June 23, 2022).

Sector(s): Tucson

Agency(ies): Border Patrol

Event Type(s): Dangerous Deportation

Accountability Status: Unknown

Victim Classification: Mexico, Single Adult