US border agents harass and rape detained immigrant women

Dozens of detained illegal immigrant women said they suffered some form of sexual abuse in U.S. Customs and Border Protection detention centers, according to a government report. These are just those who dared to report what happened—immigrant rights lawyers speak of thousands of cases. NPR told the stories of two young women who have been harassed by border agents.

Фото: Depositphotos

In the summer of 2016, two young sisters got lost in a remote part of the Texas desert. They left their small town in Guatemala and crossed the border without documents. Frightened and suffering from thirst, they were in the hands of the border patrol.

The elder sister said that the patrol agent took her to a room similar to the closet. He said he was going to search her because it was his job. Further, according to the girl, he ordered her to take off her clothes and forcibly pulled off her underwear. The girl was crying when he touched her intimate places. After that, he brought a younger sister into the room, while a minor.

The younger sister describes the same scenario - orders to take off her clothes, inappropriate touching. The names of the young women are not being released because they are believed to be victims of violence. They were 17 and 19 years old then. The sisters traveled to America to escape the gangsters in their town and reunite with their mother, Gloria. She lived in the United States for many years without documents and by that time became seriously ill.

A few days after the arrival of the girls Gloria called. The woman says that the interviewee introduced himself as an investigator of the US Customs and Border Service. He said that her daughters reported agent harassment and an investigation was launched. The man told her to stay strong and promised to help. Then Gloria burst into tears.

The border patrol released the girls to their mother in a few days. According to the statements, the Border and Customs Service maintains a policy of zero tolerance for sexual harassment and attacks on those in custody. But critics of the system say that this is not enough.

James Tomshek was the head of the internal investigations department at the Border and Customs Service from 2006 to 2014 a year. He says he was concerned about the alarming level of sexual misconduct of border agents working with detained immigrants. According to Tomshek, there were much more such situations than in other law enforcement agencies.

Tomshek believes this behavior may be due to staffing shortages and hiring “surges” that allow people unsuited for the job to become part of the system. The expert is concerned that the Trump administration's plan to rapidly increase the number of border patrol officers could lead to new problems. And immigrant rights advocates are concerned that the violence continues. They say government reports do not document attacks that immigrants are either afraid to report or are not investigated if the victim does come forward to report the incident.

Angelica Salceda, a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, filed lawsuits on behalf of the affected sisters.

“We have seen troubling cases of human rights abuses by Border Patrol and Customs and Border Protection agents. So it's certainly more than just a few bad apples,” Salceda says.

Lawyers say that thousands of immigrant detainees make statements each year about physical or sexual abuse by employees of the United States Border Guard Service or the US Immigration and Customs Police, and that agencies often reject them. According to the report, in recent years only 1 out of almost 40 cases of staff abuse has been found to be justified.

Investigators of the Border and Customs Service closed the sisters ’case, stating that there was no physical evidence of violence. In February, 2019, the agency satisfied the claim in the case of the younger sister on 125 thousand dollars. The service noted that the settlement is not equal to pleading guilty and that the agent accused of violence continues to work.

According to Salveda, she is leading a long struggle for justice in relation to the client, who was a minor at the time. The young girl did not want to go to court and relive the painful memories. But this incident still caused her psychological trauma. She is very religious and fears that the future partner will reject her if she finds out about what happened. Her sister left the United States and returned to Guatemala.

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