A new report identifies persistent human rights abuses without accountability at the US-Mexico border by agents with US Customs and Border Protection – the largest civilian law enforcement agency run by the federal government.
The report, compiled by the Washington Office on Latin America (Wola) and the Kino Border Initiative (KBI), migrant rights advocacy groups, details a pattern of misuse of lethal force, intimidation, sexual harassment and falsifying documents.
The authors wrote: “The lack of accountability is so widespread that it helps cement in place a culture that enables human rights violations. The abuses keep coming because impunity is so likely.”
One migrant who filed a complaint after agents using a four-wheel vehicle hit him and ran over his leg, said: “Border patrol has the right to apprehend someone but in the proper way, not wrongfully.
“Many people are afraid of the border patrol. Thanks be to God – he gave me the strength to endure and overcome what they did to me … People do not have to put up with border patrol’s abuses.
“My case is … an example that I share with fellow migrants, so that they don’t become demoralized. If the border patrol hits you, demand your rights, because we all have rights.”
Wola and KBI said the accountability process for such incidents was “opaque, bewildering, and slow-moving”.
KBI tracked 78 complaints filed on behalf of migrants between 2010 and 2022, of which it said 95% led to no proper investigation or disciplinary action.
Specifically, 35% of cases were recorded in a database with no action taken; 25% of cases died after acknowledgment; 14% were closed due to ongoing litigation or previous recommendations; 10% were closed because allegations could not be substantiated or because it was determined policies were not violated; and 4% led to recommendations it was unclear were followed.
Only 1% of complaints resulted in disciplinary action.
In some cases, KBI said, it took two years to receive any response or even an acknowledgment of receipt.
Wola maintains its own database of complaints of alleged abusive or improper conduct, currently including 409 cases.
In 2020, KBI received 442 reports of alleged abuse by US agents, “meaning that 18% of new arrivals had experienced abuse by a US authority”, it said. Reports of abuse, it added, are “likely an undercount”.
The new report identifies several failure points within the accountability process and offers more than 40 recommendations for solutions, including reform of the complaint intake and investigations processes; congressional oversight; a website to track the status of complaints; and general transparency.
“The examples of abuse and unprofessional behavior documented in this report are unacceptable,” Wola and KBI concluded. “They are unacceptable in their frequency, and in the severity of their cruelty.”
