13 Records of Alleged Abusive or Improper Conduct where the event type is “Disregard of Public Health”

January 17, 2024

A January 17 Arizona Daily Star report described freezing temperatures and lack of access to basic necessities threatening asylum seekers gathered outdoors along the border, especially in southern Arizona. As many as 1,000 people were reported awaiting processing in the Tohono O’odham Nation lands along the border in the remote desert southwest of Tucson. A majority of the arrivals reported in this region, as cited by the Arizona Daily Star and described by Tohono O’odham Chairman Verlon Jose, are asylum seekers in family units, including young children. 

Since December, aid workers have coordinated daily presence in the Arizona border region, particularly in the context of freezing temperatures and heavy rains, often being the sole providers of food, water, shelter, medical care, and addressing the growing sanitation needs. A volunteer described his experience, “shoveling human excrement into [the] trenches that were dug”. Volunteers were also reportedly transporting asylum seekers experiencing medical emergencies, despite Border Patrol’s threats to arrest them, as volunteers described the lack of response by authorities even in dire situations. 

Volunteers from Southern Arizona humanitarian aid group, No More Deaths, built a make-shift encampment in the desert region east of Sásabe, with tents and a cooking area, and attached tarps to the border wall to create additional shelters from the cold. CBP subsequently placed “cease-and-desist” signs on the tarps, stating it was a safety hazard and interfered with law enforcement and construction crews’ access to the road, as well as obstructed visibility. 

After pressure from aid workers and the Tohono O’odham nation, Customs and Border Protection installed one large, heated tent, portable toilets, and a hand washing station near the San Miguel gate. 

“It’s solely their responsibility to be doing almost everything that we’re currently doing”, stated a humanitarian aid volunteer. 

Bregel, Emily. “Life-Threatening Cold, ‘sanitation Crisis’ for Migrants at Arizona-Mexico Border.” Arizona Daily Star, January 17, 2024. https://tucson.com/news/local/subscriber/arizona-mexico-border-tohono-oodham-asylumseekers-migrants-surge/article_52e4a176-b565-11ee-87a6-67208722eaeb.html.

Sector(s): Border Patrol, CBP, Tucson

Agency(ies): Border Patrol

Event Type(s): Conditions in Custody, Conditions of Arrest or Apprehension, Denial of Protection to Most Vulnerable, Disregard of Public Health, Endangerment

Last Known Accountability Status: Unknown

Victim Classification: Mexico

Late April, 2023

Reporting on April 27, 2023, the Nogales-based Kino Border Initiative (KBI), which maintains a migrant shelter in Nogales, Sonora, stated, “Similar to reports Kino documented from people who were laterally expelled to Nogales, MX in 2021, expelled asylum seekers reported many common abuses, such as Border Patrol agents throwing away all their clothing, handcuffing them at the feet, waist and hands for hours at a time, denying basic hygiene items and access to showers for up to a week, and misleading them to believe they were going to see an immigration judge, only to be expelled through another part of the border.”

Among cases cited:

– Briseida [name changed to protect privacy] turned herself in to BP. She was detained for 5 days. She asked to be able to shower because she was menstruating, but the BP agent did not allow her to shower. She also requested sanitary pads, which they never provided to her.

– After turning himself in to BP, Jair [name changed to protect privacy] was detained for 10 days. He was only allowed to shower 1 time and he was never allowed to brush his teeth.

– Olivia [name changed to protect privacy] was detained for 5 days, during which she was allowed to shower only 1 time. She only had the clothes she was wearing when she arrived, as they took away all her other clothing. They confiscated the underwear she was wearing and gave her a pair of underwear that was too small. She had to rip them to be able to wear them. She was never allowed to make a phone call while she was detained, not even to let her family members know she was alive. BP put her on a plane and she could not eat or drink anything on the plane because she was chained at the hands, waist and feet the entire time.

— “April 27 update from KBI” (Nogales: Kino Border Initiative, April 27, 2023).

Sector(s): Tucson

Agency(ies): Border Patrol

Event Type(s): Conditions in Custody, Disregard of Public Health, Gender-Based Harm or Violence

Last Known Accountability Status: Unknown

Victim Classification: Female, Single Adult

February 16,2023

On February 16, 2023  an open letter to Border Patrol was published with contributions from 16 humanitarian organizations denouncing Border Patrol’s response to a medical emergency in a remote area of the Southern Arizona borderlands. As documented by the volunteer search and rescue team involved in the case, the family of a Guatemalan migrant named Martín, made a distress call to a humanitarian aid group that works with migrants, as he needed medical assistance in the wilderness area of the Baboquivari Mountains, lying on the Tohono O’odham Reservation. Martín had been left behind by the group he was traveling with due to chest pains not allowing him to continue. The humanitarian group alerted Border Patrol and 911 dispatchers of Martín’s exact coordinates, personal phone number, and copy of his ID. All 911 calls were sent to Border Patrol, which were unresponsive. Border Patrol was unresponsive for three days during the search for Martín. After the Border Patrol did not respond, another humanitarian aid group,  Frontera Aid Collective (FAC), made various calls to law enforcement in Pima County, Arizona, near Martín’s location.

 The calls were then transferred to the “Border Patrol Search, Trauma, and Rescue Unit (BORSTAR), who refused to initiate a rescue. As cited in the open letter, “one dispatcher even laughed at the callers.” In response to Border Patrol’s inaction, Frontera Aid Collective and Tucson Samaritans volunteers organized a life-threatening rescue mission to the mountains. During this time, over 40 emergency calls from various groups were made to Border Patrol. Martín, himself, called 911 11 times over the course of 3 days and even sighted helicopters that did not offer help. Once the humanitarian groups were able to locate him, they assisted him down the mountain. After “he was given minimal medical evaluation and treatment by agents who spoke and understood very little of his language, at the bottom of the mountain, he was deported to Nogales, Sonora.”

Several Organizations. “Open Letter to US Border Patrol,” February 2023. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AJdxfSZz9nYtEwZOtTIzVrrEgEYP5R-wq6xBjkPqMTw/edit?usp=embed_facebook.

Sector(s): Border Patrol

Agency(ies): Border Patrol, CBP

Event Type(s): Corruption, Denial of Access to Asylum, Denial of Protection to Most Vulnerable, Disregard of Public Health, Endangerment, Inappropriate Deportation, Insubordinate or Highly Politicized Conduct, Lying or Deliberate Misleading, Misuse of Intelligence Capability, Return of Vulnerable Individuals

Last Known Accountability Status: Unknown

Victim Classification: Guatemala, Medical Condition

February 7, 2023

Reporting on February 16, 2023, the Nogales-based Kino Border Initiative (KBI) recounted a case of confiscation of personal belongings, including medication and baby formula before being expelled to Mexico under Title 42.

Jazmin [name changed to protect privacy] said that BP confiscated their belongings and threw away medication, baby formula and diapers. Jazmin and her family were deported without diapers or formula for her youngest son and they had to find people who would give them these items for free, as they did not have any money.

“February 16 update from KBI” (Nogales: Kino Border Initiative, February 16, 2023).

Sector(s): Tucson

Agency(ies): Border Patrol

Event Type(s): Denial of Protection to Most Vulnerable, Disregard of Public Health, Inappropriate Deportation, Non-Return of Belongings

Last Known Accountability Status:

Victim Classification: Ecuador, Family Unit, Female

March 25, 2022

Activist Scott Nicol posted photographs of Cuban and Costa Rican vaccination cards discarded in a trash bag at a site near the border wall In Mission, Texas. The trash, left by Border Patrol agents, included personal belongings of asylum-seeking migrants who regularly turn themselves in at this site.

—”Scott Nicol @Scott_NicolTX on Twitter” (United States, Twitter, March 25, 2022) https://twitter.com/Scott_NicolTX/status/1507508896272949257.

Sector(s): Rio Grande Valley

Agency(ies): Border Patrol

Event Type(s): Disregard of Public Health, Non-Return of Belongings

Last Known Accountability Status: No Steps Taken

Victim Classification: Costa Rica, Cuba

January 13, 2022

According to a January 2022 Human Rights First report on the “Remain in Mexico” (RMX) program in El Paso, “Some migrants and asylum seekers said CBP officers refused to provide masks to detainees who requested them and that some CBP officers were themselves not consistently wearing personal protective equipment.” In San Diego in early January 2022, one man “reported that CBP officers refused to provide him a mask when he requested one.”

A Shameful Record: Biden Administration’s Use of Trump Policies Endangers People Seeking Asylum (New York: Human Rights First: January 13, 2022) https://www.humanrightsfirst.org/resource/shameful-record-biden-administration-s-use-trump-policies-endangers-people-seeking-asylum.

Sector(s): El Paso, El Paso Field Office, San Diego, San Diego Field Office

Agency(ies): CBP

Event Type(s): Conditions in Custody, Disregard of Public Health

Last Known Accountability Status: Unknown

Victim Classification:

November 17, 2021

Just before a mandate that all federal employees be vaccinated against COVID-19 by November 22, Border Patrol had a 79 percent rate of full vaccination. Another 16 percent of agents had pending requests for exemptions from the mandate, much higher than the federal government average, leaving 5 percent unvaccinated or unresponsive. At the Intercept, Ken Klippenstein wrote about agents who resent or are resisting the vaccine mandate. In it, an agent in the Rio Grande Valley sector sent an e-mail to 3,000 colleagues that began, “You said, ‘STOP THE SPREAD!!’ but that should have been our battle cry, ‘STOP THE SPREAD OF ILLEGAL ALIENS INTO THE COUNTRY.”

— Valerie Gonzalez, “Border Patrol prepares to address non-compliant unvaccinated agents” (McAllen: The Monitor, November 27, 2021) https://myrgv.com/featured/2021/11/27/border-patrol-prepares-to-address-non-compliant-unvaccinated-agents/.

— Ken Klippenstein, “The Biden Administration’s Game of Chicken With Border Patrol Over Vaccines” (The Intercept, December 1, 2021) https://theintercept.com/2021/12/01/covid-vaccine-mandate-border-patrol/.

Sector(s): Border-Wide

Agency(ies): Border Patrol

Event Type(s): Disregard of Public Health, Insubordinate or Highly Politicized Conduct

Last Known Accountability Status: Unknown

Victim Classification:

August 5, 2021

A report from the Border Network for Human Rights included the testimony of “S.O.D.,” who said she was threatened and invasively strip-searched by CBP Field Operations personnel at El Paso’s Santa Fe (Paso del Norte Bridge) Port of Entry.

Today (8/5/2021), I went to Ciudad Juárez with my 5-month-old son, Nathan, because he had an appointment with the pediatrician at the Family Clinic at 1:30 p.m. for a stomach infection and flu. When I returned to El Paso, I arrived at the Santa Fe bridge around 2:20 p.m. When it was my turn to see the officer, he told me he would take my photo, which I agreed to. He asked for my documents; I gave him my Texas identification. When he asked for my son’s papers, I showed him the papers from our visit to the clinic, which had my full name and my son’s social security number. He told me that I would have to go in for a routine check-up. I told him that was fine; I had no illegal things with me.

They put me in the inspection room with three officers, two females and a male officer sitting on the computer. The male officer stated that my son did not look like me and that my son’s papers were invalid. He asked me, “how do we verify that he is your son? We would have to do a DNA test, and that would take a week.” Therefore, he said they were going to take my son to a detention place. I asked him where they were going to take him. The officer, an older man, mockingly told me that he would put him in a cage. The way he expressed himself was not funny to me at all.

They told me to take my money and all my belongings and put them inside my son’s diaper bag. One of the female officers checked the diaper bag, put it in a blue box, and then took my son. The other female officer inspected me thoroughly. She put me against the wall and told me to lower my pants to my knees. She physically checked my whole body. She put her hands under my bra and touched my parts in front and behind.

The male officer told me that, since I couldn’t prove that he was my son, they would accuse me of child trafficking and arrest me. I told him that I knew a person from CPS who could verify that the child is indeed my son and that he is an American citizen. At that moment, he turned around, looked at me, and repeated, “CPS?”

The officer then gave me back my documents and told me to leave. He said that he did not want to see me crossing the border with my son, that the next time, they would take him away from me. One of the female officers accompanied me to the door to leave. I was detained for approximately 40 minutes.

The truth is that I felt denigrated because of the way they abused my rights and those of my son. I was only taking him to the doctor; I was not doing anything illegal. I showed him the doctor’s prescription, but he did not mind exposing my son to a closed place where there were more people and possible contagious viruses. My son is a baby; he was sick.

The Border Network for Human Rights stated that it shared this and other testimonies in its February 2022 abuse monitoring report “with the agencies involved.”

The State of Human Rights at the U.S. – Mexico Border: Abuse Documentation 2022 Campaign Report (El Paso, Border Network for Human Rights, February 22, 2022) https://bnhr.org/abuse-documentation-2022-campaign-report/.

Sector(s): El Paso Field Office

Agency(ies): Office of Field Operations

Event Type(s): Abuse of Minor, Abusive Language, Disregard of Public Health, Wrongful Strip Search

Last Known Accountability Status: Unknown

Victim Classification: Accompanied Child, Family Unit, Female

Early June, 2021

The Kino Border Initiative reported:

While some migrants apprehended at night have reported being detained overnight and deported the following morning, one woman who arrived at our center reported that after turning herself in to Border Patrol in the desert, she was detained overnight then still released into Sonora the following night. By holding the woman overnight in a congregate setting and then expelling her over 24 hours later, Border Patrol makes it clear that nighttime expulsions are not, as they have claimed, for the purpose of avoiding the spread of COVID through prolonged detention in CBP custody.

— “June 10 Update From KBI” (Nogales: Kino Border Initiative, June 10, 2021).

Sector(s): Tucson

Agency(ies): Border Patrol

Event Type(s): Dangerous Deportation, Disregard of Public Health

Last Known Accountability Status: Shared with Congressional Oversight Committees, Unknown

Victim Classification: Female, Single Adult

October 14, 2020

A report from the Border Network for Human Rights included the testimony of “A.P.M.R.,” who said she was invasively strip-searched and harassed by CBP Field Operations personnel at El Paso’s Santa Fe (Paso del Norte Bridge) Port of Entry.

On Oct. 14, between 4 and 5 p.m., I crossed the international port of entry. At the port of entry, the officer asked me the reason for my visit to Juarez, to which I responded that I had gone to see a dentist. He asked me to take off my mask and my glasses, then asked me if I had something to declare. I responded I didn’t. He also asked me when was the last time I had been to Juarez. I told him I did not remember, possibly three months ago.

That bothered the officer. He yelled at me, “How are you not able to remember!” Then the officer asked if I had ever had problems. I assumed the question was if I had ever had any issues with the police in the United States, so I answered I had not.

He then called another officer and claimed I was lying to them. They said that I had an issue with immigration back in 2000. I did have an issue 20 years ago, but I had applied for my legal residency and I was approved. I thought it was a thing of the past.

The officer never specified if I had immigration issues; it was just a misunderstanding on my end. However, they took my fingerprints and my picture.

She called another officer and took me into a room. She yelled at me; told me she was going to check me. I thought she was referring to my purse, but no. She yelled at me to raise my hands against the wall and began to inspect me and touch my private parts. She smacked my left thigh and yelled at me to open my legs further. She asked if there was anything in between, referring to my vagina, and I said no.

I was embarrassed, harassed, and sexually assaulted without a reason, motive, or warning. I did nothing wrong or illegal to deserve this treatment. After the officer searched me, she went through my purse and travel bag and found nothing illegal. She questioned me about some pills that I had, and I told her they were for my migraine.

She was yelling at me the whole time, trying to intimidate me, embarrass me, and harass me. Throughout this whole situation, there was another female officer inside the room just looking at us. In the end, the last officer told me that every time I cross the border, I have to declare that I’ve been deported. I was never told this before; I took it as intimidation.

I was treated like a criminal, like an animal that didn’t deserve respect over a simple misunderstanding. None of the officers were wearing masks. They took my fingerprints, took my picture, told me to take my shoes and mask off, and exposed me to potentially catching Covid-19.

The Border Network for Human Rights stated that it shared this and other testimonies in its February 2022 abuse monitoring report “with the agencies involved.”

The State of Human Rights at the U.S. – Mexico Border: Abuse Documentation 2022 Campaign Report (El Paso, Border Network for Human Rights, February 22, 2022) https://bnhr.org/abuse-documentation-2022-campaign-report/.

Sector(s): El Paso Field Office

Agency(ies): Office of Field Operations

Event Type(s): Abusive Language, Disregard of Public Health, Wrongful Strip Search

Last Known Accountability Status: Unknown

Victim Classification: Female, Single Adult, U.S. Citizen or Resident

July 14, 2020

A U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report found that CBP misspent much money that Congress had appropriated, on an emergency basis, for consumables and medical care for children and other migrants in custody (original link).

For example, CBP obligated some of these funds for goods and services for its canine program; equipment for facility operations like printers and speakers; transportation items that did not have a primary purpose of medical care like motorcycles and dirt bikes; and facility upgrades and services like sewer system upgrades.

GAO also found that CBP and Border Patrol location were not consistently carrying out health interviews and medical assessments, despite a recent increase in deaths in custody, including deaths of children. CBP also decided not to implement a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommendation to offer flu shots to those in custody.

The report added, “CBP does not have reliable information on deaths, serious injuries, and suicide attempts and has not consistently reported deaths of individuals in custody to Congress.”

From fiscal year 2014 through fiscal year 2019, CBP was directed to report on deaths of individuals in its custody to Congress. GAO’s review of CBP documentation and reports to Congress showed that 31 individuals died in custody along the southwest border from fiscal years 2014 through 2019, but CBP documented only 20 deaths in its reports.

Southwest Border: CBP Needs to Increase Oversight of Funds, Medical Care, and Reporting of Deaths, GAO-20-536 (Washington: U.S. Government Accountability Office, July 14, 2020) https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-20-536.

Sector(s): Border-Wide

Agency(ies): Border Patrol, CBP

Event Type(s): Conditions in Custody, Disregard of Public Health, Evading Oversight, Misallocation of Funds

Last Known Accountability Status: GAO Investigation Closed

Victim Classification:

Early May 2020

The El Paso Times (May 5) and Arizona Public Media (May 7) separately reported that Border Patrol agents and CBP officers had been neglecting to wear face masks or practice social distancing in their interactions with the public during the COVID-19 pandemic’s early months. “There is a time and place for the mask. Maybe it doesn’t suit to everyone’s desires, but people should be given an option. We’re still all American citizens,” John Monahan, a CBP officer and union representative in El Paso, told the El Paso Times.

— Lauren Villagran, “Border patrol agents, officers say they have access to PPE. So why aren’t they all using it?” (El Paso: El Paso Times, May 5, 2020) https://www.elpasotimes.com/story/news/2020/05/05/cbp-border-officers-lax-using-protective-gear-coronavirus-covid-19/3079923001/.

— Alisa Reznick, “Border residents: Border Patrol agents not wearing protective gear at checkpoints” (Arizona: Arizona Public Media, May 7, 2020) https://www.azpm.org/s/76269-border-residents-border-patrol-agents-not-wearing-protective-gear-at-checkpoints/.

Sector(s): El Paso, El Paso Field Office, Tucson, Tucson Field Office

Agency(ies): Border Patrol, Office of Field Operations

Event Type(s): Disregard of Public Health

Last Known Accountability Status: No Steps Taken

Victim Classification:

March 27, 2020

A complaint filed with the DHS Inspector-General by ACLU Texas and Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center raised concerns that, at its El Paso “Station 1” facility, Border Patrol had “failed to take even the most basic actions to prevent an outbreak of COVID-19 or mitigate the risk of harm to migrants, particularly the most vulnerable.”

Specifically, notwithstanding the threat from COVID-19, Border Patrol has in its El Paso Station 1 facility:

* Held over 150 persons in a single room with persons exhibiting flu-like symptoms;

* Failed to provide information to detained individuals on the COVID-19 pandemic, such as recommended Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines for preventing transmission of the virus; [1]

* Held people in cells where they are forced to be in close contact with each other, including by sleeping approximately three feet apart;

* Failed to provide detained individuals with sufficient soap. For example, migrants reported that in one bathroom, only one of six sinks had a soap dispenser that in fact contained soap;

* Provided only a single square of toilet paper per use;

* Denied detained individuals access to hand sanitizer;

* Failed to provide adequate medical screening of detained individuals no texhibiting symptoms of illness; and

* Failed to ensure uniform access to personal protective equipment for everyone in the detention facility.

— “Re: Border Patrol Station 1 in El Paso, Texas: Failure to Adequately Respond to COVID-19 Pandemic” (El Paso: ACLU of Texas, ACLU Border Rights Center, Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, March 27, 2020): 169 https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/field_document/2021_03_03_aclu_complaint_appendix.pdf.

Footnote from above:

[1] CDC, “Interim Guidance on Management of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Correctional and Detention Facilities,” March 23, 2020, available at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/correction- detention/guidance-correctional-detention.html.

Sector(s): El Paso

Agency(ies): Border Patrol

Event Type(s): Conditions in Custody, Denial of Medical Care, Disregard of Public Health

Last Known Accountability Status: Shared with DHS OIG

Victim Classification: