By EFE
12 Feb 2024, 17:30 PM EST
US Border Patrol has “systematically” confiscated the belongings, such as medicines, documents and personal items, of migrants detained at the border, revealed a report published this Mondaywhich includes the case of a foreigner forced to throw away his deceased father’s ashes.
The report “Hope to Rest: The Disturbing Reality of Border Patrol Confiscation of Migrant Belongings,” describes the confiscation of migrants’ belongings as something “inhumane and indefensible.”
Released today by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in Arizona, The organizations Kino Border Initiative, Protect Az Health and The Sikh Coalition document in the report cases of border agents forcing migrants to get rid of personal documents, medications and objects with sentimental value when they arrive at the border between Mexico and the United States.
Together, these organizations They interviewed 960 migrants between 2022 and 2023 who painted a “worrying” panorama about the objects that were confiscated from them and that they were never able to recover.
The case of Ignacio stands out, an immigrant who claims to have been forced by Border Patrol agents to throw the ashes of his father, who died on the way from Nicaraguawhere he was born, to the US in February 2022.
Researchers documented cases across the southwestern border of the US. In New Mexico, A woman reported that her five-year-old son suffered seizures while in Border Patrol custody. because they never returned the medication that was confiscated from her when she was detained.
The minor was taken to a hospital, but upon returning to the custody of the federal agency, his medications and dietary supplements prescribed by doctors were again taken away.
The analysis gives as an example the practices implemented by the Border Patrol in the Yuma sector, on the Arizona border, where entire “piles” and garbage containers full of personal belongings of migrants have been documented and they are forced to throw them away. order of the agents.
Foreigners have also reported the confiscation of objects religious images with great meaning to them, such as turbans, prayer rugs, religious images and rosaries.
Pro-immigrant organizations indicate that, despite the complaints they have filed with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Border Patrol, these practices have not stopped.
The report recommends that Customs and Border Control (CBP) allow migrants to keep as much personal belongings as possiblewith preference for documents that serve to prove their identity and substantiate asylum requests.
As well as ensuring that migrants in their custody have continued access to any medication or medical device that they have at the time of arrest or be replaced with an appropriate one.
They also call for reorienting policy regarding the confiscation of religious objects and clothing, incorporating the strong legal protections that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act provides to migrants.
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