Deported Without Their Belongings or IDs, Immigrants Are Placed in Even Greater Danger Joshua Breisblatt - Immigration Impact
go to original April 12, 2016

Nearly 30 people who were deported say Border Patrol took their possessions and failed to return them. (John Moore/Getty Images)

26 Mexican nationals say the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) deported them from the El Paso Border Patrol sector, which covers West Texas and all of New Mexico, without their identification, money, cell phones and other possessions, exposing them to greater danger in Mexico and making it nearly impossible to contact friends and family or get back to their home cities.

A complaint was filed with the DHS Office of Inspector General, the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Office of Professional Responsibility, and the ICE Office of Professional Responsibility on behalf of these 26 individuals by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico Regional Center for Border Rights, the ACLU of Texas, the American Immigration Council, the Programa de Defensa e Incidencia Binacional, the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, Derechos Humanos Integrales en Acción, A.C., El Centro de Recursos para Migrantes, the Kino Border Initiative, and Senda de Vida.

Blanca Navarrete, the Director of the Programa de Defensa e Incidencia Binacional, in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua noted that:

“Without money, voter cards and other identification, cellular phones, and warm clothes, these individuals struggle to return to their home communities from the border. Many continue to struggle when they return home and cannot obtain work without identity documents. The Mexican voter card is particularly important because it is the primary means that people in Mexico use to prove their identity and it requires multiple original identity documents to replace.”

This complaint is not a new problem for CBP. A report from American Immigration Council in 2013 found that the confiscation and failure to return belongings is a systemic practice, with just over one-third of deportees reporting their belongings being taken and not returned.

Read the rest at Immigration Impact

Related: US Lawsuit Aims to Stop Confiscation of Immigrants’ Belongings (PanAm Post)

Related: Polls Show US Millennials More Likely to Reject Deportation and Support Path to Citizenship (Immigration Impact)

Related: Child Migrants’ Harrowing Journey Brought to Life on Stage (NPR News)

Related: Costa Rica Says Its Doors Are Closed to Cubans (Miami Herald)

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