Published by WOLA on March 8, 2023.
Raises 10 fatal cases since 2020, from this database, for which a reasonable doubt exists about whether deadly force was warranted.
CBP and Border Patrol Deadly Force Incidents Since 2020
Tag: Organizational Culture
Biden Is Still Separating Immigrant Kids From Their Families
Published by the Texas Observer on November 21, 2022.
From the start of the Biden administration to August 2022, “U.S. authorities have reported at least 372 cases of family separation,” but Observer reporters found additional cases.
Border Security Status Report First Quarter, Fiscal Year 2022
Published by the Department of Homeland Security on November 2, 2022.
A compendium of information about U.S. law enforcement and migration agencies’ activities at the border during the quarter. (Link at dhs.gov)
Spotlight on the Borderlands: How Militarization and Border Control Impact Migrants and Border Residents on the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands
Published by the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights on October 27, 2022.
Articles and analyses from “frontline leaders and organizers with direct experience, both in theory and practice, of migrant human rights.”
Surviving Deterrence: How Us Asylum Deterrence Policies Normalize Gender-Based Violence
Published by Oxfam America and the Tahirih Justice Center on October 12, 2022.
Finds that U.S. asylum deterrence policies engender conditions that cause gender-based violence to proliferate at the U.S. southern border.
Arizona Border Patrol Sectors’ Practice of Forcing Migrants to Relinquish Their Personal Belongings During Processing
Published by several organizations on October 3, 2022.
Finds that, particularly in Border Patrol’s Yuma sector, “CBP is failing to comply with its own internal operating guidelines and unreasonably confiscating the personal property of individuals in its custody.”
DHS Technology Systems Do Not Effectively Support Migrant Tracking at the Southwest Border
Published by the DHS Office of Inspector-General on September 9, 2022.
Finds that IT and record-keeping problems have led DHS to lose track of migrants and prolong family separations. (Link at oig.dhs.gov)
Taken Away: U.S. Border Agents’ Widespread Confiscation of Migrants’ Valuable Personal Items
Published by WOLA on August 25, 2022.
Compiles recent items in the Border Oversight database about agents’ confiscation, non-return, and disposal of migrants’ valuables and documents.
Bad Intelligence
Published by palabra on August 11, 2022.
Dives deeply into the story of CBP’s improper targeting of U.S. advocates and journalists whom the agency believed had some involvement with 2018-19 migrant caravans through Mexico.
New information that raises the stakes on the investigation of Border Patrol Critical Incident Teams (BPCITs) and implicates other parts of CBP
Published by the Southern Border Communities Coalition on August 11, 2022.
A letter to congressional committee chairs about further activities of Border Patrol’s controversial Critical Incident Teams, which are to be abolished at the end of September 2022.
Yuma Border Patrol Sector’s Practice of Confiscating Sikh Individuals’ Turbans During Asylum Processing
Published by ACLU of Arizona on August 1, 2022.
Finds that Border Patrol agents in Yuma had confiscated at least 64 turbans from asylum seekers of the Sikh faith so far in 2022, including at least 50 in the previous 2 months.
How the Mexican revolution of 1910 helped shape U.S. border policy
Published by NPR on July 5, 2022.
A conversation between radio host Terry Gross and Kelly Lytle Hernández, author of Bad Mexicans: Race, Empire, and Revolution in the Borderlands.
I was a border patrol agent. The experience was horrifying
Published by the Guardian on June 14, 2022.
Former Border Patrol agent Jenn Budd, author of Against the Wall, writes about her harrowing experience in the agency and about the 2010 killing of migrant Anastasio Hernández-Rojas.
Border Patrol: Actions Needed to Improve Checkpoint Oversight and Data
Published by the U.S. Government Accountability Office on June 6, 2022.
An oversight report finds that Border Patrol’s data on checkpoint drug seizures is reliable, but that the agency keeps poor records on “other checkpoint activity data, including on apprehensions of smuggled people and canine assists with drug seizures.” (Link at gao.gov)
Capacity, Security, and Accountability at the U.S.-Mexico Border’s Western Edge
Published by the Washington Office on Latin America on May 18, 2022.
Notes from an early May visit to San Diego and Tijuana as the border prepares for a possible lifting of the Title 42 pandemic restriction on asylum.
Letter from DHS Office of Inspector General to Senators Durbin and Grassley
Published by the DHS Office of Inspector-General on May 13, 2022.
The DHS Inspector-General responds to questions about his office’s decisions either not to publish, or to soften the findings of, troubling reports about sexual harassment and domestic abuse. (Link at oig.dhs.gov)
Border Oversight: Monitoring Conduct and Accountability in U.S. Border Law Enforcement
Published by the Washington Office on Latin America on April 28, 2022.
The commentary that WOLA published to accompany the launch of this database. (Español)
“I’m a Prisoner Here”: Biden Administration Policies Lock Up Asylum Seekers
Published by Human Rights First on April 21, 2022.
Finds that DHS under the Biden administration has detained tens of thousands of asylum seekers, placing them in miserable conditions and making it difficult to pursue their claims.
Southwest Border: CBP Should Improve Data Collection, Reporting, and Evaluation for the Missing Migrant Program
Published by the U.S. Government Accountability Office on April 20, 2022.
The congressional oversight agency finds that Border Patrol has failed to collect, record, or report to Congress data about migrant deaths at the border. (Link at gao.gov)
Report on Internal Investigations and Employee Accountability FY2021
Published by CBP on April 14, 2022.
Finds that CBP took 3,995 formal disciplinary actions against members of its 64,000-person workforce in fiscal year 2021, up from 2,021 actions in 2020. (link at cbp.gov)
Protecting the Predators at DHS: How a Federal Watchdog Suppresses Findings of Sexual Harassment and Domestic Violence
Published by the Project on Government Oversight on April 7, 2022.
Newly obtained documents point to the DHS Inspector-General suppressing, delaying, and watering down information about serious sexual harassment and domestic abuse patterns within the Department’s law enforcement agencies, including CBP and ICE.
Beyond the Bridge: Documented Human Rights Abuses and Civil Rights Violations Against Haitian Migrants in the Del Rio, Texas Encampment
Published by Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights and the Haitian Bridge Alliance on March 29, 2022.
Documents examples of U.S. and Mexican personnel abusing and mistreating Haitian migrants during and after a large-scale September 2021 migration event in Del Rio, Texas.
Internal CBP Documents Detail “Transnational Effort to Shut Down Asylum”
Published by the Intercept on March 22, 2022.
CBP documents and situation reports reveal extreme steps the agency, along with Mexican authorities, took to block “migrant caravan” participants’ attempt to seek asylum in early 2019.
Domestic Violent Extremism Internal Review: Observations, Findings, and Recommendations
A report produced at the initiative of DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas finds few examples of domestic violent extremism among the Department’s workforce, but warns that necessary safeguards are not in place. (Link at dhs.gov)
The State of Human Rights at the U.S. – Mexico Border
Published by the Border Network for Human Rights on February 22, 2022.
The latest of a series of “abuse documentation” reports with troubling findings about the behavior of some U.S. border law enforcement personnel in the El Paso sector, especially CBP officers working at ports of entry.