US Border Patrol Violates Human Rights of 40% of Mexicans

A study by an NGO and a Jesuit conference revealed that two thirds of families were separated and then deported to different cities in Mexico.

Close to 40 percent of Mexican migrants deported from the United States said Border Patrol agents violated their human rights, and two thirds said their families were returned Mexico separately, a study by the Kino Border Initiative and Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States revealed.

The report was entitled “Migrant Abuse and Family Separation at the Border.” The Kino Border Initiative (KBI) is a bi-national organization promoting humane immigration policies.

The researchers interviewed hundreds of deported migrants, and they found that the vast majority do not file complaints, despite having been victims of robbery, verbal and even physical abuse at the hands of Border Patrol agents.

“Despite the frequency of alleged abuse, migrants were very unlikely to file complaints,” the experts said in their report.

“Family members apprehended together are systematically separated from each other, and that this separation leads to significant financial hardships, security risks, and an increased likelihood of victimization by criminals and corrupt police once individuals are deported to Mexico,” the research revealed.

KBI’s staff said they had long observed a range of problems and difficulties faced by migrants, especially those recently deported.

The study also found that 80 percent of new hires by the border patrol had failed their polygraph test and/or had criminal history.

According to the analysis, the rates of alleged abuse grew consistently from 2007 through 2012.

However, the experts that carried out the study said, “Data collected in the second half of 2014 and the first quarter of 2015 for this report show even higher rates of abuse, with more than one in three men and women experiencing some type of abuse or mistreatment at the hands of U.S. immigration authorities.”

The researchers exposed the case of Roberto, 33, who tried to cross into the U.S. through Nogales in October 2014. He and another migrant were hidden in a brush when a Border Patrol agent saw them.

Roberto did not resist arrest, all the contrary, he knelt down only to be physically abused by the Border Patrol agents, who kneed him in his ribs and pushed him violently to the ground. Another agent put his boot on Roberto's head.

When questioned by another migrant why they were hitting Roberto, one of the agents said he could kill them both because they were “illegally in his country.”

To make matters worse, Roberto filed a report but the U.S. authorities never did anything about it.

But this is only one of hundreds of stories of abuses by immigration officials.

Many migrants also complained their belongings, including money and cell phones, were never returned to them.

The majority are deported at night into Mexico's dangerous border cities. They then risk their lives in the violent streets with no money and nowhere to go.

Families with baby experience inhumane treatment as well, as they are verbally threatened and in many cases separated from their children.

The study also denounced that “detention conditions also frequently violated the human rights and dignity of migrants.”

They said that in June 2015, several organizations filed a class action lawsuit alleging that the Tucson Sector Border Patrol violates the U.S. Constitution and its own policy by holding migrants in cold, overcrowded, filthy conditions and denied adequate food, medical care, and sanitation and personal hygiene items.

A smaller percentage of migrants deported complained about sexual harassment, but the KBI investigators said that even one case of rape merits the concern of the people and an in-depth investigation by the government. However, they said, this does not happen.         

​Abuses by the Border Patrol have been widely reported, but even more widely ignored by authorities. In 2011, the San Diego reader published a report saying that there over 30,000 human rights abuses were reported.