Holding CBP Accountable for Turning Away Asylum Seeker and Falsifying Paper Trail

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers all too frequently deny individuals fleeing persecution and torture their right to seek protection in the United States, issue summary removal orders against them, and then falsify documents to support their illegal actions.

This case is but one example of this unlawful practice. It involves a Mexican national who fears persecution based on sexual orientation. After apprehension, Border Patrol officers deprived him of an opportunity to articulate his fear of return to an asylum officer or an immigration court. Instead, the officers subjected him to an expedited deportation process during in which an officer fabricated false statements in the paperwork supporting the removal order against him. In a subsequent proceeding, a federal district court judge found the officer’s testimony—in which he claimed to have complied with the law—lacked credibility.

This lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida by the American Immigration Council; the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project; and the law firms of Kairys, Rudovsky, Messing, Feinberg & Lin LLP; and Holland & Knight. In January, the District Court granted Defendant’s motion to dismiss. Mr. Crespo appealed the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.