The number of apprehensions of undocumented immigrants on the U.S.-Mexico border has dropped, but reports of abuses against immigrants are on the rise.
Those are the findings of a new report released by the Arizona humanitarian aid organization No More Deaths.
The report, “A Culture of Cruelty,” documents 30,000 incidents of human rights abuses against undocumented immigrants in short-term detention between fall 2008 and spring 2011. Nearly 13,000 people were interviewed in the Mexican border towns of Naco, Nogales and Agua Prieta.
Allegations range from Border Patrol agents denying food and water to adults and children in detention for several days, to purposely separating families during deportation or forcing people to sign removal orders.
They also include concerns that detainees were not provided the right to due process.
“We didn’t go out looking for these stories. They came to us and they were inescapable,” said Hannah Hafter, a co-author of the report who works as a volunteer for No More Deaths helping deported immigrants.
“Many of the grassroots services we provide wouldn’t need to exist if the Border Patrol was doing the right thing,” she said.
The report contends that the alleged physical and verbal abuse suffered by immigrants fits the international definition of torture.
According to the United Nations Convention Against Torture, physiological abuse can be defined as “an act committed by a person acting under the color of law specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering […] upon another person within his custody or physical control.”
Allegations of torture include threatening detainees with death while in custody, and verbal and physical abuse.
“That is a pretty serious allegation, and any allegation we are going to take very seriously and we’re going to look into it,” said Colleen Agle, a spokesperson from the Tucson Sector of ...