More than 100 migrant children and adolescents reported abuses by border authorities in the US

• The minors claimed to have suffered physical abuse and verbal abuse | Photo: EFE

More than 100 migrant children and adolescents reported having suffered physical and verbal abuse while in the custody of the Border Patrol in the state of Arizona (United States). The complaints correspond to the period from January 2023 to March 2024, according to a report by the Florence Project for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, an organization that demands immediate action from the US government.

“We have reports of children as young as a five-year-old girl who was separated from her grandparents and detained without any family members for 72 hours,” Roxana Avila-Cimpeanu, deputy director of the humanitarian organization, told the EFE news agency.

This case is part of the report Handcuffed, pushed and scared: Migrant children share terrifying experiences while in Border Patrol custodywhich documented 134 complaints from migrant children and adolescents.

Photo: EFE

More cases of abuse against migrant children and adolescents are not ruled out

The activist said she does not rule out the possibility of more cases of abuse against migrant children and adolescents, because the Florence Project’s lawyers do not have continuous access to minors, as they are quickly transferred.

“Some children are too young to express in their own words what they have experienced, others have difficulty obtaining an interpreter or fear retaliation from the same officers,” Avila-Cimpeanu said.

The report documents cases of children and adolescents between 5 and 17 years of age, from 21 countries, mostly from Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela and Guinea.

Photo: EFE

The abuses

One in 10 minors interviewed reported having been physically assaulted, while four in 10 said they had suffered verbal abuse.

Among the testimonies, one stands out: a minor who said that an agent shouted at him “Go back to Mexico.” While some children were told by the officers that “they no longer had parents” because they had been deported, others were called “criminals.”

An 11-year-old girl was told to find an “American husband” to marry so she could stay in the United States.

According to the report, one child said officers grabbed children and threw them to the ground and hit them. A 12-year-old girl said officers called her and her sister “bitches” while laughing.

An 8-year-old boy was not allowed outside for four days, even though other children were allowed to do so. Several children and teenagers were placed in cells with adults who were not their relatives.

March was the month with the most complaints

The most violent complaints were reported in March 2024. According to Camila Auer, one of the report’s researchers, during that month cases were reported with “a high level of violence that I had not heard of before.”

“Children were handcuffed and pushed. One child witnessed an adult being pushed into barbed wire,” Auer said in the report.

One of the children interviewed said he witnessed two migrant men die while in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (CBP).

In addition, children and adolescents also reported poor access to food, water, medicine and medical care, including pregnant adolescents.

Complaints at the California border

The abuses did not only occur in Arizona. In a separate report, the California-based Immigrant Defenders Legal Center (IMMDEF) also denounced similar abuses by Border Patrol agents on that state’s border with Mexico.

The two groups filed a formal complaint with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) calling for immediate action.

“The Biden Administration has five months left in its term and we urge it to use its time wisely and honor our request to protect children and families seeking refuge in the United States,” Lindsay Toczylowski, director of ImmDef, said in a statement.

Activists hope that this new complaint will have a better response than the similar complaint filed in 2022, which documented very similar abuses against migrant children.

However, in 2023, CBP only agreed to remind its personnel of existing policies regarding protocol and procedures to follow regarding the care of migrant minors traveling alone while in federal custody.

With information from EFE.

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