Abuses

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No Action Taken: Lack of CBP Accountability in Responding to Complaints of Abuse

One of the most revealing findings of this report concerns the prevailing lack of action taken by CBP officials in response to the complaints received.

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  • Blog

Supreme Court Hears Case on Shooting of Sergio Hernandez by U.S. Border Patrol Agent

February 22, 2017

Officers with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)—the federal agency which includes the Border Patrol—are rarely held accountable for their actions. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the...

  • Blog

The Ongoing Mishandling of Migrants’ Possessions by CBP and ICE

December 21, 2016

Each year, tens of thousands of individuals are deported from the United States to Mexico without their personal belongings—including their identifications, money, and cell phones, among other...

  • Blog

Judge Orders Border Patrol to Immediately Provide Short Term Detainees with Basic Necessities

November 29, 2016

A federal judge ordered the Border Patrol to immediately cease its practice of refusing to provide basic amenities to people detained in Border Patrol holding cells in Tucson, Arizona. The judge...

  • Blog

The Death Toll of Immigration Detention

November 1, 2016

Each year on November 1 and 2, people around the world celebrate the Day of the Dead—sometimes called All Souls Day or Día de los Muertos in Spanish—to remember and honor children and adults who...

  • Blog

Hearing Reveals Ongoing Civil Rights Abuses at Border Patrol Checkpoints

September 14, 2016

Under current law, the Border Patrol is allowed to conduct certain enforcement activities within 100 miles of the U.S-Mexico border that it isn’t permitted to in areas further interior. In fact,...

  • Blog

Lengthy Detention and Reprehensible Conditions in Border Patrol Facilities, New Evidence Shows

August 18, 2016

Each year, the Border Patrol—a division of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)—holds hundreds of thousands of individuals in detention facilities near the U.S. southern border. These...

  • Blog

Photographic Evidence of Conditions in CBP’s Short-Term Detention Facilities “Hieleras” Revealed

June 30, 2016

A judge in Arizona unsealed photographs central to ongoing litigation challenging deplorable and unconstitutional conditions in Border Patrol’s short-term detention facilities in the Tucson Sector...

  • Blog

This Lawsuit Seeks to Determine Whether Customs and Border Protection Has Improved Its Complaint System

June 6, 2016

Two years ago, the American Immigration Council released an analysis of data it had obtained from the Department of Homeland Security detailing an utter lack of responsiveness to complaints filed...

  • Blog

CBP Officers Accused of Abusive Behavior at Ports Of Entry

May 19, 2016

Residents along the U.S.-Mexico border in Western Texas and New Mexico face repeated abuse from U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP’s) Office of Field Operations (OFO) officers at ports of...

  • Blog

Two People Died in Immigration Detention This Week

May 4, 2016

For more than a decade, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been criticized for the inadequate medical care available in its detention facilities, which has had deadly repercussions....

  • Blog

ICE Quietly Expands Immigration Detention in the Deep South

July 18, 2019

While members of Congress were struggling to reach a bipartisan deal in February in order to end the government shutdown, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) quietly expanded its...

  • Press Release

Newly Released Documents and Personal Testimonies Provide Evidence of Systematic Family Separations a Year After the End of Zero-Tolerance Policy

June 22, 2019
Newly obtained documents from the Department of Health and Human Services released today by immigrant rights groups and The Houston Chronicle show that migrant children continued to be separated from their parents at the border nearly one year after the end of the “zero tolerance” policy.
  • Blog

No Help “Unless We’re Dying.” Immigrants Present Evidence of Inadequate Medical Care in Detention

June 11, 2019

As the Trump administration ramps up efforts to expand immigration detention in the United States, many detained immigrants continue to suffer behind bars due to woefully inadequate medical and...

  • Blog

People Forced to Stand on Toilets, Wear Soiled Clothing for Days at Border Patrol Facility

June 4, 2019

The post People Forced to Stand on Toilets, Wear Soiled Clothing for Days at Border...

  • Blog

ICE Uses Solitary Confinement on Immigrants Who Are Transgender, Suicidal

May 31, 2019

The post ICE Uses Solitary Confinement on Immigrants Who Are Transgender, Suicidal appeared first on...

  • Blog

Worsening Detention Conditions in Border Patrol Custody Highlighted in New Complaint

May 23, 2019

The post Worsening Detention Conditions in Border...

  • Blog

The Death Toll of Migrant Children in US Custody Continues to Rise

May 21, 2019

The post The Death Toll of Migrant Children in US Custody Continues to Rise appeared first...

  • Blog

How Florida’s SB 168 Will Benefit the Private Prison Industry

May 10, 2019

The Florida legislature recently passed SB 168 with the stated intent of ensuring that state officials and agencies fully cooperate with federal immigration authorities in enforcing immigration...

  • Blog

Local Officials in Massachusetts, New York Challenge ICE Courthouse Arrests

May 3, 2019

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has dramatically increased enforcement actions in and around state and local courthouses since 2017. As part of the Trump administration’s aggressive...

  • Press Release

Trump Administration’s Surveillance of Family Separation Protests Follows a Pattern of Harassment

April 29, 2019
Newly released government records reveal that the Department of Homeland Security monitored protest preparations across the United States and internationally in June 2018, as communities organized to oppose the Trump administration’s separation of children and parents at the southern border. The discovery follows other recent revelations that the government has been secretly monitoring activists, journalists, and immigrant rights defenders.

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