A new report released by two immigrant rights organizations details a broad range of abuse experienced by unaccompanied minors in Border Patrol custody along the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona and California.
The abuses reported include children being subjected to hunger, physical abuse such as pushing, kicking, and punching by federal agents, and the brandishing of weapons to instill fear. The report compiles hundreds of such complaints.
The Immigrant Defenders Law Center (ImmDef) and The Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project (Florence Project) filed complaints with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, urging the body to conduct an investigation. These abuses and harmful conditions are not new, according to a joint statement from both organizations, which claim to have filed "hundreds of complaints over the years" with oversight agencies responsible for investigating detention conditions.
The latest report summarized 314 complaints from children ages 5 to 17 held in federal detention centers in 2023 and 2024. The children, who reported these incidents, came from 21 countries, most of them from Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, and Guinea.
According to the report, 1 in 10 children claimed to have experienced physical abuse, while nearly 4 in 10 reported verbal abuse. The children also reported enduring extreme cold, separation from caretakers such as aunts, grandparents, and siblings, unsanitary conditions, being held with adults, and sleeping on the ground or outdoors.
Individual accounts shared by the children are also included in the report. One child said he saw two adults die in CBP holding facilities. A 15-year-old reported seeing agents intentionally trip children and pull on their jackets as they walked by. Another boy claimed he was punched in the eye by an agent, which led to vision problems.
Members of ImmDef and the Florence Project have urged the Biden administration and Congress to investigate and take action, providing a set of recommendations. These include sanctions on CBP's oversight agencies and the hiring of child welfare professionals to ensure proper care for children in custody.
"The Biden administration has five months left in its current term, and we urge them to use the time wisely and comply with our demands to protect children and families seeking refuge in the United States," said Lindsay Toczylowski, co-founder and executive director of ImmDef.
According to Florence Project Legal Director Laura St. John, this is just the tip of the iceberg. "The number of reports of abuse of children in Border Patrol custody should be zero, but our organization has received hundreds of reports in recent years, and there are many more incidents that go unreported," she said.
The Latin Times reached out to CBP for comment on the allegations of child abuse published in the report. As of the publication of this article, CBP has not responded.
In a recent press release, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said it is working diligently to ensure unaccompanied minors are placed with vetted family members or other sponsors in the U.S. as quickly and safely as possible. According to CBP data, 137,275 encounters with unaccompanied children were recorded in 2023, a 9.7% decrease from 2022. Thirty-six percent of these children were from Guatemala.
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