Startling increase in physical and sexual abuse of child immigrants by US Border Patrol, new report alleges

The report says that there is a pattern of the abuses, and that Border Patrol has not implemented necessary safeguards to keep children safe

The US has seen a massive influx of unaccompanied minors coming to the US in recent years (Getty)

A new report suggests that there has been a startling increase in the number of instances where US Border Patrol officers have abused children seeking shelter in the United States from violence and poverty in Central America.

The report, based on more than 30,000 pages of Border Patrol reports obtained by chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) through Freedom of Information Act requests, alleges a "pattern of inimidation, harassment, physical abuse, refusal of medical services, and improper deportation between 2009 and 2014." The report follows after a previous disclosure from the ACLU that detailed 116 incidents where officers were alleged to have physically, sexually, or psychologically abused children between the ages of five and 17.

A quarter of those cases were reports of alleged physical abuse, while half were alleged verbal abuse, including death threats. Half of the cases involved alleged denial of necessary medical care. Eighty per cent of the cases included allegations that the children were not provided adequate food and water. The agency has denied the claims as "baseless".

In one of those complaints, a child was allegedly “run over by a [Customs and Border Patrol] truck” causing “crushing damage” and “significant trauma” to the child’s leg. The child, whose age was not disclosed in a complaint, was later diagnosed with a broken leg, and Border Patrol agents were accused of not properly caring for the injury.

In other reports, Border Patrol agents reportedly used tasers to inflict pain on children in violation of policies prohibiting the use of the electric shock devices except in specific circumstances, like when a suspect is evading arrest or acting violently. One complaint alleged that a child was asked if he knew what a taser was before he was shocked with the device, “causing great harm”.

Taken together, the documents allege a startling apparent tolerance for violence against children at a time when the US is seeing a significant influx of unaccompanied minors arriving at its border seeking protection from violence and poverty in their home countries. The ACLU says that it began requesting the documents after immigrant watchdogs noticed an increase in the number of stories of abuse.

Dan Hetlage, a spokesperson with the US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), took issue with the ACLU's findings.

"The false accusations made by the ACLU against the previous administration are unfounded and baseless. The 'report' equates allegations with fact, flatly ignores a number of improvements made by CBP as well as oversight conducted by outside, independent agencies, including the [Department of Homeland Security] Office of Inspector General (OIG) and the Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties over the last decade," Mr Hetlage said in the statement emailed to The Independent.

"The OIG has already completed an investigation and found these claims unsubstantiated and did not observe misconduct or inappropriate conduct. CBP takes seriously all allegations of misconduct, but without new specifics is unable to check to commence reasonable steps to examine these assertions and address the accusations levied,” the statement continued.

A statement from Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Katie Waldman largely mirrored that from CBP, and reiterated that the OIG had investigated the claims previously, and that the allegations in the documents "are without merit", and are "a collection of patently baseless allegations".

The OIG report mentioned by the two agencies addressed concerns of substandard detention conditions for child immigrants — which is alleged in the ACLU report — in 2014. The OIG conducted 57 unannounced visits to 41 different facilities, and "did not observe misconduct or inappropriate conduct by DHS employees during our unannounced visits", the report reads.

In 2016, the rate of incoming child migrants increased by over 100 per cent compared to the year before, with 20,455 unaccompanied minors arriving at the US-Mexico border. That rate forced the US to increase its capacity for processing the children as they arrive.

Border Patrol has seen a massive increase in size over the past twenty four years, with a jump from just 4,000 agents then to over 20,000 today. That growth was attained through hiring surges, which was accompanied by an increase in the number of reports of agents using excessive force, and of fatal shootings at the border.

The reports obtained by the ACLU cover a period of time during the administration of former President Barack Obama, but the US has seen changes that immigration advocates say have created an increasingly hostile environment for unaccompanied minors arriving in the US.

That has included an assortment of policies that were adopted in the first year of President Donald Trump’s administration, including new restrictions on unaccompanied minors who are seeking asylum in the US, and rewritten guidelines for judges during deportation proceedings.

Those policies, generally, have been justified by arguments that incoming minors are allowing gangs like MS-13 to grow.