General Info
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“Crossing the Line”: Table of contents, background and methodology |
Crossing the Line
Human Rights Abuses of Migrants in Short-Term Custody on the Arizona/Sonora Border
A report documenting human rights abuses suffered by migrants while in the custody of the United States Border Patrol.
Compiled and published by No More Deaths
September 2008
Table of Contents
Background to Report 6
Abuse Documentation Methodology 8
Report Findings 10
Failure to Respect Basic Dignity
Failure to Provide and the Denial of Water
Failure to Provide and the Denial of Food
Failure to Provide Medical Treatment
Inhumane Processing Center Conditions
Verbal Abuse
Physical Abuse
Dangerous Transportation Practices
Separation of Family Members
Repatriation of Vulnerable Populations at Night
Failure to Return Personal Belongings
Failure to Inform Migrants of their Rights
Recommendations and Conclusion 23
Appendix
Complete Abuse Documentation 27
Volunteer Affidavits 50
Organizational Letters of Support 87
Selected Documentation Forms 98
Faith Based Principles for Immigration Reform 102
Acknowledgements 104
Glossary of Terms
Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
Under DHS, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) houses the Border Patrol. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a separate DHS agency. The Border Patrol is responsible for apprehensions and custody of individuals perceived to be in violation of immigration law along the border, while equivalent duties are carried out by ICE in the interior.
Repatriation/Returned
Most of the migrants served at the No More Deaths Border Aid Stations and in Border Patrol custody have signed a ‘voluntary removal’ or ‘voluntary departure’ form and are repatriated. This a civil procedure, not criminal.
Deportation
One is deported after going before a judge and receiving deportation orders. This is a formal legal proceeding.
Short-term Custody
A period of 72 hours or less of non-criminal custody, before any prosecutorial documents are issued. Individuals are most often held in Service Processing Centers (SPCs).
Detention
A DHS, or privately contracted facility, where a person is detained in ICE custody, and held for a period longer than 72 hours.
Migrant
In this report, the term ‘migrant’ refers to people in transition from one geographical location to another out of personal necessity.
Violation and Abuse
Mistreatment and negation of basic human rights, defined by the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights as “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.”
Standards of Care
The basic, essential human rights that must be given to any human being while in government custody, including but not limited to food, water, medical attention.
Oversight
An independent system to guarantee ongoing access of community and human rights groups to all DHS facilities for the purpose of monitoring the implementation of all standards of care. This mechanism for accountability includes legal recourse for noncompliance.
Memoranda of Understanding (MOU)
A statement of agreement between two entities. In this report, the MOUs referenced are those between the Mexican Government and the US Border Patrol that pertain to minors in short-term custody and the repatriation of women and children after dark.
Background
A morally intolerable situation inspired a remarkable humanitarian movement in Southern Arizona in the fall of 2003. At that point more than 2,000 men, women, and children had died trying to cross the U.S./Mexico border since 1998, driven by economic inequality and ill-conceived U.S. immigration policy. Most deaths were occurring in the desert’s brutal summer months, where the average temperature reaches 110 degrees regularly. The death toll continued to rise, in spite of the efforts of well-organized humanitarian aid groups like Humane Borders and The Samaritan Patrols. With another summer of inevitable deaths looming, diverse faith-based communities, social activist groups, and concerned individuals felt compelled to find another way to stop unnecessary suffering and to save lives. The result was the convergence of hundreds of local, regional, and national volunteers who came together to work for one common goal. No Más Muertes—No More Deaths.
In March 2004, the Multi-Faith Border Conference was held. At that conference, No More Deaths presented its principles for immigration reform and an invitation to join a campaign in the summer of 2004. Guided by the first presupposition of the immigration reform principles—that the militarized border enforcement strategy is a failed strategy—a coalition of groups determined that an around-the-clock, non-violent, physical humanitarian presence in the desert would be the single most effective response to the tragic crisis.
No More Deaths committed to provide water, food, and medical assistance to migrants traveling through the Arizona desert; to monitor U.S. operations on the border; and to bring the plight of migrants to public attention. In order to do this No More Deaths established desert camps from which to offer aid. The camps were located in remote desert areas that had become highly traveled corridors due to the implementation of the Southwest Border Strategy, and other policies that intentionally shifted traditionally urban migration flows to the isolated terrain of the Arizona-Sonora border as a component of a misguided “policy of deterrence.”
The desert camps continue to play a central role in the direct relief efforts of the group; volunteers coordinate patrols that provide food, water, and medical assistance on highly-used migrant trails while serving as public witnesses to the violence, suffering, and death that plague the borderlands. Since the first camp in the summer of 2004, thousands of volunteers have come from across the U.S. and throughout the world to participate in No More Deaths’ presence in the desert and in Northern Mexico. Volunteers agree to abide by clear medical and legal protocols and work in concert to save human lives.
An equally important component to the mission of No More Deaths is the work carried out at the migrant aid stations. In 2006 No More Deaths began to collaborate with partner organizations to open aid stations in Northern Mexico at ports of entry where migrants are returned by U.S. immigration enforcement agencies. In conjunction with The Sonoran State Commission for the Care of Migrants in Nogales, Frontera de Cristo in Agua Prieta, and Citizens for Border Solutions in Naco, No More Deaths offers relief to people who have been repatriated or deported from the U.S. by the Department of Homeland Security and its subcontractors. The aid stations provide food, water, medical attention, clothing, emotional support and orientation to other local resources.
Since its inception, the aid station in Nogales alone has served more than 250,000 people. Of those migrants, many arrive needing extended care, such as hospital treatment. The demographic on average is almost three-quarters men, and one-quarter women and children. The majority of people who pass through the aid stations have been apprehended in the desert while crossing; however, some have been taken into custody while working or at home with their families in cities and towns across the United States. Many people arrive at the aid stations with stories and visible evidence of mistreatment they have experienced while in the custody of the Department of Homeland Security.
As early as the late 1980s, human rights organizations had begun to document the abuses committed by Border Patrol agents against migrants in their custody. The American Friends Service Committee’s Immigration Law Enforcement Monitoring Project documented over 1200 instances of abuse from May 1989 to May 1991. The report accused Border Patrol agents of sexual, verbal, and physical abuse, false arrests, and illegal deportations. In May of 1998, Amnesty International released a report documenting the routine deprivation of water, food, and medical attention, theft, verbal, psychological, and physical abuse and the use of excessive force by the Border Patrol. Since that time, Americas Watch (now Human Rights Watch-America), the National Lawyers Guild, Mexico’s National Commission of Human Rights, and the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project, amongst other groups, have documented the ongoing patterns of abuse of migrants by DHS agents.
Highlighted in this report are the daily violations of human and civil rights that continue to occur during apprehension, processing and repatriation in short-term custody. These practices regularly violate domestic and international law, as well as guidelines, Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs), and recommendations issued by the agency itself. The testimonies of the report reveal a systematic refusal to respect the dignity of human beings and a failure to uphold human rights as well as international law.
Methodology of Documentation
For the past two years, volunteers from No More Deaths and partner organizations have documented human rights abuses occurring in short-term Border Patrol custody along the Arizona-México border. Volunteers have been stationed on an ongoing basis since June 2006 at sites at the Agua Prieta, Naco, and Nogales ports of entry, dedicated to receiving repatriated migrants. While providing basic care addressing the various physical and medical needs of migrants, volunteers began to hear stories about and see evidence of the harrowing, difficult journeys that so many undertake. Systematic methods of documentation have been established to record the lived experiences of migrants in U.S. custody.
Volunteers first take a report each time a DHS or Wackenhut bus returns a group of migrants to one of these three ports of entry on the Arizona-México border; this documentation is general, and includes rough estimates about the size of the group, the time of arrival, and the location of drop-off. Volunteers then assess the number of exceptionally vulnerable people in the group: women, children, and those in need of medical attention.
Medical assessments are taken, beginning with those displaying obvious medical distress. All medical needs are always addressed first, along with other basic necessities such as food and clothing. Volunteers do this work with great care, paying attention to the strain an individual might feel of having gone through an incredibly difficult emotional and physical experience. Only after all other needs have been addressed is the survey discussed with individuals. It is made clear that they do not have to participate and that receiving additional services is not contingent on them participating. For individuals that give their consent, a survey is conducted.
All the volunteers administering the surveys have been trained extensively and are fluent in Spanish. No information given is shared with others on site, and personal information is only included in an optional question at the end of the survey. For confidentiality, all last names and other identifying information contained in the original documentation have been omitted in this report. Volunteers discuss with the person interviewed the possibility of their testimony being used in a publicly distributed report and address any concern expressed with their information being included. Both closed and open-ended questions are asked, allowing for people to share personal testimonies and experiences. These testimonies can be viewed in their entirety in the appendix of this report. Information collected is then transferred into a site-specific spreadsheet and entered into a secure online database. Finally, the data is classified by category of violation, project site, and date.
After compiling almost two years of documentation, review and categorization of the patterns of abuse found regularly in our surveys began. Twelve “Areas of Concern” were identified and are featured in the findings. Using these areas of concern as the foundation, recommendations have been established for custody standards directly responding to each point. The documentation provided in this report, with the evidence to support it, is intended to be a catalyst for changing policies and how law enforcement treats migrants.
It is important to emphasize that this report is not the result of statistical analysis. Rather, the nature of this report is qualitative. The aim is to shed light on and publicize the systematic human rights abuses that thousand suffer at the hands of U.S. immigration law enforcement agents, using testimonies of the individuals who have experienced these abuses first hand.
Report Findings
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Cialis AU
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