CBP Abuse Complaint

ImmDef Complaint to CRCL and OIG: CBP Abuse of Minors

2022

Child abuse is unacceptable, and its continued prevalence in Customs and Border Protection (CBP) facilities must end. On April 6, 2022, ImmDef submitted a complaint to the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (“CRCL”) and the Office of the Inspector General (“OIG”), documenting the systemic abuses unaccompanied children face while in CBP custody.

This complaint was filed jointly with complaints by Kids in Need of Defense (“KIND”), Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project (“FIRRP”), and Americans for Immigrant Justice (“AIJ”), in consultation with the Young Center concerning similar abuses reported by the unaccompanied children they serve.

The OIG declined to investigate this complaint. The CRCL sent recommendations to CBP to reduce these instances from repeating. According to our clients, these abuses continue.

2024

On September 12, 2024 ImmDef filed a second complaint to CRCL, OIG, and the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman (OIDO) concurrently with Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project.

These abuses and harmful conditions continue despite hundreds of complaints filed over the years with oversight agencies that are charged with investigating detention conditions and individual misconduct.

The two new reports detail a broad range of abuse and mistreatment experienced by children along the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona and California in 2023 and 2024, including being subjected to hunger, being pushed, kicked, and punched by federal agents, brandishing of weapons to instill fear, lack of access to hygiene products, lack of access to medical care, and verbal abuse, including use of vile language and threats to deport children. Read FIRRP's report here.

Case Background

ImmDef urges CRCL, OIG, and OIDO to investigate CBP’s systemic abuse of unaccompanied children, address the longstanding violations alleged in the organizational complaints, and take all steps necessary to bring CBP personnel and facilities in compliance with the Flores Settlement Agreement, the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (“TVPRA”), and CBP’s National Standards on Transport, Escort, Detention, and Search (“TEDS”). We also urge CBP and DHS to initiate stakeholder discussions to usher in the changes proposed by these organizations and reimagine the systems that exist to process unaccompanied children into the United States.