172 Records of Alleged Abusive or Improper Conduct in “Tucson”

November 2, 2020

A report from the Kino Border Initiative (KBI) and NETWORK discussed the experience of a Guatemalan woman who crossed the border and was “detained by CBP” with her one-year-old daughter and eight-year-old son.

At Tucson station, when they were being transferred, the Guatemalan woman asked where she was being taken; the CBP agent replied she did not know, but that they might take the woman’s fear declaration at the next station. The woman was taken to Nogales. The woman asked an agent to take her fear declaration, but the agent said CBP doesn’t do that in Nogales. Then the woman asked another agent who gave her food to take her fear declaration. That CBP agent didn’t speak Spanish and asked another agent to come over to interpret. She told them that a family member had been killed in Guatemala and that she also feared returning to Mexico as she had been robbed there. The agents told her that her case doesn’t matter since there are gangs in the U.S. too. The woman and her children were expelled to Mexico soon after.

KBI filed a November 6, 2020 complaint with the DHS Office on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL) and the CBP Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR). On January 4, 2021, CRCL emailed “that they received the complaint, recorded it in their database, and no further actions would be taken. No details were provided about disciplinary actions for officers or recourse for victims of abuse.”

— Due Process Denied (United States: Kino Border Initiative (KBI) and NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice, August 2021) https://networklobby.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/KINO-NETWORK-CBP-Abuses-consolidated.pdf.

Sector(s): Tucson, Tucson Field Office

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

Event Type(s): Denial of Protection to Most Vulnerable

Last Known Accountability Status: Complaint Filed with CRCL, Complaint Filed with OPR, No Further Action

Victim Classification: Family Unit, Guatemala

Late October, 2020

The Kino Border Initiative reported:

A Guatemalan man who arrived in Nogales this week after being returned to Mexico under Title 42 reported that a Border Patrol Agent went through his belongings, took away the pills prescribed to regulate his diabetes, and threw them in the trash. When the man arrived at our Migrant Aid Center, he had gone several days without taking his prescribed medication.

— “October 29 Update From KBI” (Nogales: Kino Border Initiative, October 29, 2020).

Sector(s): Tucson

Agency(ies): Border Patrol

Event Type(s): Denial of Medical Care, Non-Return of Belongings

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

Victim Classification: Guatemala, Single Adult

Late October, 2020

The Kino Border Initiative reported:

A middle-aged Salvadoran woman who left San Salvador in August is one of over a dozen migrants who arrived in Nogales in the last two weeks and reported multiple abuses during their journey. In Mexico, she suffered poor conditions in detention, where detainees slept 15 to a room on the floor, and were not provided toilet paper, soap, toothpaste or any personal protective equipment, despite the COVID-19 pandemic. Although she attempted to request international protection with US Border Patrol agents twice, both times agents refused to hear her fear claim or connect her to an official who could provide the appropriate fear assessment.

— “October 29 Update From KBI” (Nogales: Kino Border Initiative, October 29, 2020).

Sector(s): Tucson

Agency(ies): Border Patrol

Event Type(s): Denial of Protection to Most Vulnerable

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

Victim Classification: El Salvador, Female, Single Adult

Late October, 2020

The Kino Border Initiative reported:

Although DHS has not released official numbers by location, local partners estimate about 100 migrants a day are being returned to Sasabe, Sonora, Mx under Title 42 expulsions. This border town, with a population around 2,500, does not have a shelter for migrants who find themselves expelled and without resources. Organized crime has significant control in Sasabe, and there is no official headquarters for Instituto National de Migración (INM). Rather, INM officials have been traveling regularly from their office in Nogales, Sonora to Sasabe to attend to migrants who have been expelled.

— “October 29 Update From KBI” (Nogales: Kino Border Initiative, October 29, 2020).

Sector(s): Tucson

Agency(ies): CBP, DHS

Event Type(s): Dangerous Deportation

Last Known Accountability Status: No Steps Taken, Shared with Congressional Oversight Committees

Victim Classification:

October 5, 2020

Border Patrol agents, including members of the Border Patrol’s SWAT team-like Tactical Unit (BORTAC), carried out another raid on the Byrd Camp, a desert facility near Arivaca, Arizona operated by the faith-based humanitarian group No More Deaths (NMD). This follows a raid just over two months earlier, on July 31.

The National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild described the operation:

After staking out the Byrd Camp for nearly two days, Border Patrol agents stormed the Camp in a convoy of vehicles that included a Bearcat tank. A Border Patrol helicopter buzzed the camp, flying so low that its rotor wash destroyed a NMD tent and storage shed. Agents detained at least a dozen people, including at least six NMD volunteers.

BORTAC “came in, guns drawn, in full camouflage. The sun had just gone down, so it was totally pitch-black. They detained all of the volunteers,” No More Deaths volunteer Paige Corich-Kleim told the Nation. “All of the people [migrants] that were at camp receiving [humanitarian] aid were chased in the darkness. Border Patrol detained 12 people there.” Corich-Kleim noted an increase in aggressive behavior from the agency:

We’ve been documenting their abuses since 2008, but under the Trump administration, more explicitly racist and violent policies and tactics are more widely accepted and endorsed by the president and by the political institutions. They’ve been able to normalize and escalate all of these tactics over the years. I think what we’re seeing now is Border Patrol is able to operate with even more impunity and in even more violent ways, and still get away with it.

— Tory Johnson, “Border Patrol is Going After Humanitarian Aid in the Arizona Desert—Again” (United States: Immigration Impact, American Immigration Council, October 15, 2020) https://immigrationimpact.com/2020/10/15/border-patrol-raid-humanitarian-camp/.

— Sirine Shebaya, Joseph Meyers, Matthew S. Vogel, Khaled Alrabe, Letter to Customs and Border Protection (Washington: National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, October 5, 2021) https://nipnlg.org/PDFs/2021_05Oct_NMD-letter.pdf.

— Jessica Suriano, “The Border Patrol Is Cracking Down on Humanitarian Aid” (United States: The Nation, December 15, 2020) https://www.thenation.com/article/society/no-more-deaths-arizona/.

Sector(s): Tucson

Agency(ies): Border Patrol, BORTAC

Event Type(s): Intimidation of Humanitarian Workers, Use of Force

Last Known Accountability Status: Unknown

Victim Classification: Advocate or Humanitarian Worker, U.S. Citizen or Resident

Early October, 2020

The Kino Border Initiative reported:

At the beginning of October, a pregnant woman migrating with her husband in the Sonoran desert was experiencing pre-term contractions when CBP officials encountered her. CBP transported the mother to Tucson Medical Center to undergo an emergency cesarean section, and detained the father, separating him from the rest of the family. CBP removed him to Mexico within a few days. The Florence Project feared that the mother, upon discharge from the hospital, would be returned to Mexico pursuant to Title 42 while her newborn, nursing son remained in the neonatal intensive care unit. Thankfully, through Florence Project representation and congressional advocacy, CBP granted the mother parole. The father remains separated from his family, and it is unclear whether the mother would have remained with her newborn without significant intervention from a third party.

— “October 15 Update from KBI” (Nogales: Kino Border Initiative, October 15, 2020.)

Sector(s): Tucson

Agency(ies): CBP

Event Type(s): Family Separation

Last Known Accountability Status: Shared with Congressional Oversight Committees

Victim Classification: Family Unit, Pregnancy

Late September, 2020

The Kino Border Initiative reported:

Earlier this week, a young couple with their baby who fled threats from organized crime in Honduras attempted to cross through the desert in Arizona to request asylum. They turned themselves in to Border Patrol near Tucson, and expressed their fear of returning to Honduras as well as the discrimination they have encountered in Mexico after being detained multiple times, denied health care amidst a serious illness in detention, and having wages stolen by an employer. The BP agents claimed they did not speak Spanish, and told them they could only request asylum at a port of entry with a CBP officer. When the family was returned to Mexico, they approached the downtown Nogales port of entry, only to be rejected. The CBP agent they spoke with refused to take any steps to assess their fear claims and turned them away.

— “October 1 Update from KBI” (Nogales: Kino Border Initiative, October 1, 2020).

Sector(s): Tucson, Tucson Field Office

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

Event Type(s): Denial of Protection to Most Vulnerable

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

Victim Classification: Family Unit, Honduras

Late September, 2020

The Kino Border Initiative reported:

In the past two weeks, KBI documented 5 separate incidents of migrants CBP expelled to downtown Nogales, Sonora between 11PM and 1:30AM. In at least 3 of these incidents, those who were expelled were forced to sleep outside because no hospitality resources were available at that hour. In 4 of those cases, migrants did not receive any documentation to enter Mexico since Mexico’s National Migration Institute (INM) was not open. In one case, a man who INM received requested officials allow him to stay at the office for the night and INM officials refused. He then slept on a bench in downtown Nogales, where he was robbed.

— “October 1 Update From KBI” (Nogales: Kino Border Initiative, October 1, 2020).

Sector(s): Tucson

Agency(ies): CBP

Event Type(s): Dangerous Deportation

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

Victim Classification: Single Adult

September 2020

Reporting in September 2022, the Nogales-based Kino Border Initiative (KBI) related a father’s prolonged inability to reunite with two daughters.

Miguel [name changed to protect privacy] and his 2 daughters arrived in Nogales in January of 2020, when asylum seekers faced “metering.” When it was almost his family’s turn to cross and start their asylum process, the government implemented Title 42, meaning Miguel and his family would have to wait indefinitely for the ability to seek asylum. They waited 8 months and Miguel then made the impossible decision to send his daughters on without him, ages 8 and 1. He tried to cross to the US to reunite with them 3 times, but CBP expelled him each time and detained him for 30 days for en-entry on his last attempt. He has yet to be able to reunite with his daughters.

— “September 15 update from KBI” (Nogales: Kino Border Initiative, September 15, 2022).

Sector(s): Tucson

Agency(ies): CBP

Event Type(s): Family Separation

Last Known Accountability Status: Unknown

Victim Classification: Accompanied Child, Family Unit

Early September, 2020

The Kino Border Initiative reported:

A father of two who fled death threats in Nicaragua arrived in Nogales last week after attempting to cross between ports of entry to request asylum in the U.S. After being abandoned by a guide and waiting with his nephew in the desert for days without food or water, he was detained by Border Patrol. He fainted when they arrived at the detention center, and then was hospitalized for 9 days, during which time he received dialysis for the severe damage done to his kidneys by dehydration.

Border Patrol agents removed him from the hospital in a wheelchair before he received official release from the hospital, and deported him to Mexico with no shoes, socks or underwear, only the hospital gown he was wearing. Hardly able to walk, he was deported alone and forced to walk barefoot over rocky ground to the Mexican immigration office. This, after expressing to numerous Border Patrol agents and hospital staff his fear of returning to Mexico and desire to seek asylum in the U.S.

— “September 17 Update” (Nogales: Kino Border Initiative, September 2020).

Sector(s): Tucson

Agency(ies): Border Patrol

Event Type(s): Dangerous Deportation, Denial of Medical Care, Denial of Protection to Most Vulnerable, Return of Vulnerable Individuals

Last Known Accountability Status: Unknown

Victim Classification: Medical Condition, Nicaragua, Single Adult

Early September, 2020

The Kino Border Initiative reported:

A Cuban woman, seven months pregnant, and who had been waiting for ten months with her husband to be processed for asylum in Nogales, recently attempted two border crossings in one day in a small Arizona border town. Despite the couple’s repeated expression of their fear of returning to Mexico to Border Patrol agents, the wife’s vulnerability as a pregnant woman, and the fact that Mexico has not agreed to receive Cubans under Title 42 expulsions, the two were quickly returned to Mexico both times. Rather than further assessing their fear claims, a Border Patrol agent instead suggested the woman might break her own water to prematurely induce labor as her only way to stay in the U.S.

— “September 3 Update” (Nogales: Kino Border Initiative, September 2020).

Sector(s): Tucson

Agency(ies): Border Patrol

Event Type(s): Abusive Language, Denial of Protection to Most Vulnerable, Inappropriate Deportation, Return of Vulnerable Individuals

Last Known Accountability Status: Complaint Filed with CRCL, Shared with Congressional Oversight Committees

Victim Classification: Cuba, Family Unit, Pregnancy

July 31, 2020

Border Patrol agents, including members of the Border Patrol’s SWAT team-like Tactical Unit (BORTAC), some in armored vehicles, carried out a nighttime raid on a camp near Arivaca, Arizona run by No More Deaths, a faith-based humanitarian group. “Agents zip-tied volunteers’ hands behind their backs, shouted at them with rifles raised, and confiscated their cellphones, as well as the organization’s medical records,” the Intercept reported. They arrested 37 undocumented immigrants who were receiving medical treatment at the site. Once Border Patrol arrested the migrants, agents released the No More Deaths volunteers, who found their camp severely damaged and paperwork taken away.

The agents had obtained a search warrant from a Tucson judge, which alluded to the No More Deaths camp’s possible use to harbor both undocumented migrants and illegal contraband. Tucson Sector Border Patrol Chief Roy Villareal tweeted a surveillance photo of a group of migrants who agents tracked through the desert into the No More Deaths camp, adding, “Not everyone we rescue or encounter is a good person. Notice the backpacks. We don’t know what’s in these backpacks. Agents often encounter narcotics smugglers with packs full of dangerous drugs, headed for our communities” (original link).

The incident recalled a June 2017 raid on the same camp. In January 2018, the group published a report accusing Border Patrol of destroying thousands of water jugs that it left in the desert to prevent migrants from succumbing to dehydration. “No More Deaths claims Friday’s raid is in retaliation to its publishing on July 29 two Border Patrol emails that the group obtained through a public records request,” the Arizona Republic reported. “The emails discuss union pressure and the participation of Border Patrol’s tactical unit in the raid on Byrd Camp on June 15, 2017.“

The Byrd Camp would be raided again on October 5, 2020.

— Ryan Devereaux, “Border Patrol Launches Militarized Raid of Borderlands Humanitarian Aid Camp” (United States, The Intercept, August 2, 2020) https://theintercept.com/2020/08/02/border-patrol-raid-arizona-no-more-deaths/.

— Rafael Carranza, “Border agents raid migrant aid camp in Arivaca for second time, group claims retaliation” (Tucson: Arizona Republic, July 31, 2020) https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/immigration/2020/07/31/border-patrol-raids-migrant-aid-camp-arivaca-no-more-deaths/5558639002/.

— Rafael Carranza, “Border aid group assessing aftermath of Border Patrol raid on medical camp” (Tucson: Arizona Republic, August 3, 2020) https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/immigration/2020/08/03/no-more-deaths-border-patrol-raid-aftermath/5578091002/.

— Twitter thread by @USBPChiefTCA (Tucson: Twitter, July 31, 2020) https://twitter.com/USBPChiefTCA/status/1289349801922813952.

— BrieAnna J. Frank, “Border Patrol arrests 4 migrants at Arizona desert aid camp” (Tucson: Arizona Republic, June 15, 2017) https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/border-issues/2017/06/16/border-patrol-arrests-no-more-deaths-medical-aid-camp-arizona/402478001/.

— Part II: Interference with Humanitarian Aid Death and Disappearance on the US–Mexico Border (Arizona: No More Deaths, 2018) http://www.thedisappearedreport.org/uploads/8/3/5/1/83515082/disappeared_report_part_2.pdf.

Sector(s): Tucson

Agency(ies): Border Patrol, BORTAC

Event Type(s): Intimidation of Humanitarian Workers

Last Known Accountability Status: No Steps Taken

Victim Classification: Advocate or Humanitarian Worker, U.S. Citizen or Resident

Mid-July, 2020

The Kino Border Initiative reported:

We filed a complaint on behalf of a Cuban couple, who was kidnapped for months in Mexico. A government official in southern Mexico put them in contact with the woman who ended up kidnapping them. After several months they managed to escape, but the woman has continued to send threatening messages and says that she knows they are in Nogales.

When they crossed into the US and were detained, they tried to express their fear of return to Border Patrol agents. However, the agent responsible for processing them only replied “you think I’m here to solve your problems? … All Cubans come here with the same story” and “you are going back no matter what and you will have to figure out what to do.”

Another agent told them there was nothing he could do besides give them a speedy court date. He scheduled them for a July hearing, which has since been rescheduled to October due to the court cancellations. Both were returned to Nogales, Sonora with no access to an interview with a USCIS officer to assess their fear of return.

— “July 23 Update From KBI” (Nogales: Kino Border Initiative, July 23, 2020).

Sector(s): Tucson

Agency(ies): Border Patrol

Event Type(s): Abusive Language, Denial of Protection to Most Vulnerable

Last Known Accountability Status: Complaint Filed with CRCL, Shared with Congressional Oversight Committees

Victim Classification: Cuba, Family Unit, Kidnap Victim

July 4, 2020

The Kino Border Initiative reported:

A Salvadoran mother who was detained and expelled on July 4th with her 14-year-old daughter, who is asthmatic, reported that in the few hours in custody Border Patrol agents at the Nogales Station yelled at them repeatedly. One agent gathered the group and told everyone “send the message back to everyone that even if you have asylum cases and even if you have kids there would be no options in the US for you.” He told them “tell others that you would never triumph in the US.” She and her daughter were quickly returned to Mexico despite their fear of return and were never given a chance to share additional information on the persecution that they had fled in El Salvador.

— “July 9 Update From KBI” (Nogales: Kino Border Initiative, July 9, 2020).

Sector(s): Tucson

Agency(ies): Border Patrol

Event Type(s): Abusive Language, Denial of Protection to Most Vulnerable

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

Victim Classification: El Salvador, Family Unit

July 4, 2020

The Kino Border Initiative reported:

A Guatemalan mother and her four children who had fled persecution in their home country entered the US on July 4th with a packet of evidence related to their asylum case, including police reports that document their attempts to seek protection. When apprehended by Border Patrol, she tried to show agents that evidence.

Instead, two ASID (Alien Smuggler Identification and Deterrence) agents interrogated her for around half an hour about who she had paid and how she had crossed. They refused to listen to her or look at any documents related to her asylum claim and threatened that if she didn’t give them the information they wanted on the smuggler she would face serious consequences. They asked her for her husband’s number. Since he is in the US and is in the asylum process, she thought that they would call him as part of processing her for asylum. Instead, they only called her husband to ask whether he paid the cartel and, if so, how much money

Before expelling the mother and her four children, a Border Patrol agent said to her that she should pass on the message of: “Don’t come here. You aren’t going to get anything. If you bring kids, you won’t accomplish anything.”

— “July 9 Update From KBI” (Nogales: Kino Border Initiative, July 9, 2020).

Sector(s): Tucson

Agency(ies): Border Patrol

Event Type(s): Abusive Language, Denial of Protection to Most Vulnerable

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

Victim Classification: Family Unit, Guatemala

May 27, 2020

The Kino Border Initiative reported, “A young Salvadoran woman who crossed the border to seek asylum expressed her fear of returning to her country of origin to the Border Patrol agents that apprehended her. The agents responded by laughing in her face.”

— Kino Border Initiative, “May 27 Update From KBI”, May 2020.

Sector(s): Tucson

Agency(ies): Border Patrol

Event Type(s): Denial of Protection to Most Vulnerable

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

Victim Classification: El Salvador, Female, Single Adult

Late May 2020

The Kino Border Initiative reported:

Last week KBI received a Guatemalan child who had traveled north with the hope of attending school in the US. Although CBP officials have repeatedly told KBI that Border Patrol agents are directed not to expel unaccompanied children, this 16-year-old was expelled to Nogales, Sonora. The Border Patrol agent that interviewed him took away his birth certificate, told him it was fake, and accused him of lying about his age, before expelling him to Nogales, Sonora.

— “May 27 Update From KBI” (Nogales: Kino Border Initiative, May 2020).

Sector(s): Tucson

Agency(ies): Border Patrol

Event Type(s): Confiscation of Documents, Denial of Protection to Most Vulnerable, Expulsion of Unaccompanied Minor

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

Victim Classification: Guatemala, Unaccompanied Child

Late May 2020

The Kino Border Initiative reported:

A Guatemalan woman who arrived at the KBI migrant aid center this week shared that after losing her job during the pandemic, and with no economic recovery in sight in her town, she migrated north to find a way to support her family. She crossed the border with a group, including several minors, and was apprehended after walking about 25 hours in the desert. The Border Patrol agents who apprehended them threatened that if the group tried to run, he would release his dogs to chase them, and if they were bitten or injured as a result, it was their fault.

— “May 27 Update From KBI” (Nogales: Kino Border Initiative, May 2020).

Sector(s): Tucson

Agency(ies): Border Patrol

Event Type(s): Abusive Language, Threat of Violence

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

Victim Classification: Female, Guatemala, Single Adult

Late May 2020

The Kino Border Initiative reported:

A young Guatemalan woman arrived in Nogales last week after fleeing domestic violence. Her partner had beaten her and her children. When she left him, he threatened to take away her children and continued to look for her to beat her children. When she crossed into the US to seek asylum, Border Patrol expelled her under Title 42 without giving her access to a fear assessment.

— “May 27 Update From KBI” (Nogales: Kino Border Initiative, May 2020).

Sector(s): Tucson

Agency(ies): Border Patrol

Event Type(s): Denial of Protection to Most Vulnerable

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

Victim Classification: Domestic or Gender-Based Violence Victim, Female, Guatemala

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:

Early January, 2020

The Kino Border Initiative reported:

Since MPP returns to Nogales began on January 2nd, CBP has already returned particularly vulnerable individuals, including 3 two-year-old children, 2 one-year-old babies and 3 families that are primarily Mam speaking (despite the fact that indigenous language speakers, especially of non-Mexican languages, shouldn’t be subject to MPP).

— “January 9 Update from KBI” (Nogales: Kino Border Initiative, January 9, 2020).

Sector(s): Tucson

Agency(ies): CBP

Event Type(s): Return of Vulnerable Individuals

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

Victim Classification: Family Unit, Indigenous

Early January 2020

The Kino Border Initiative reported:

In the last week, at least two families were separated as a result of MPP, including a man who was returned while his pregnant wife was released in the US, and a woman with children returned whose husband remains detained.

— “January 9 Update from KBI” (Nogales: Kino Border Initiative, January 9, 2020).

Sector(s): Tucson

Agency(ies): CBP

Event Type(s): Family Separation

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

Victim Classification: Family Unit, Pregnancy