LAS CRUCES, NM—Today, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico Regional Center for Border Rights (RCBR), the ACLU Foundation of Texas (ACLU-TX), and the Southern Border Communities Coalition (SBCC) filed a complaint on behalf of thirteen border residents, urging the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection to investigate abusive treatment by Office of Field Operations officers at ports of entry in El Paso, Texas and southern New Mexico.

The complaint details officers’ use of excessive force, verbal abuse, humiliating searches and intimidation to coerce individuals into surrendering their legal rights. In multiple cases, border residents told the RCBR that CBP officers discouraged or failed to inform them of how to file a complaint.
“Every day, thousands of students, workers and tourists legally cross our ports of entry to do business or visit family,” stated Cynthia Pompa, field organizer at the RCBR. “When unprofessional or downright cruel CBP officers humiliate, discriminate and physical or verbally abuse them, their mistreatment and lack of accountability offends American values of equality and justice.”

In May 2015, the RCBR joined organizations from Brownsville, Texas to San Diego, California to launch “Dignity Crossing,” a campaign to document the stories of border residents who cross land ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border. Nationwide, roughly 600,000 people enter the United States through ports of entry on a daily basis and 1 in 24 jobs in America’s Heartland rely on cross-border commerce at our southern border. Today’s complaint details a handful of the many cases reported to the RCBR by U.S. citizens and Mexican nationals who commuted regularly and lawfully through our nation’s ports:

• In September and October 2015, CBP officers mocked Amanda Rodríguez Varela’s work for gender equality and falsely accused her of providing “favors” in the United States, calling her a “whore.” After roughly ten hours of intimidation and humiliating searches, CBP officers coerced Ms. Rodríguez into signing forms she didn’t understand and that included a falsified interrogation to justify the revocation of her visa and a five year bar to entering the United States.

• On January 25, 2015, CBP officers at the Ysleta-Zaragoza port of entry in El Paso falsely accused Raúl Humberto Cadena Castillo of going to live with his girlfriend and seek employment in the United States, despite the fact Mr. Cadena provided both proof of his university enrollment for an engineering degree and employment. After nine hours of questioning and laughing at text messages between Mr. Cadena and his girlfriend, CBP officers coerced Mr. Cadena into signing falsified documents and agreeing to a five year bar to entering the United States.

• On September 19, 2014, a CBP officer stopped Pamela Morales, a U.S. citizen, as she drove southbound through the Bridge of the Americas port of entry by pounding on her window. When Ms. Morales asked for the CBP officer’s first name and stated she intended to file a complaint, the officer detained her and forced her to speak to a CBP supervisor who threatened her and ultimately revoked her SENTRI pass in retaliation for asking to file a complaint.

“For many of us, crossing the border means coming home,” added Vicki Gaubeca, director of the RCBR. “CBP claims to facilitate lawful trade and travel, but the indignities their officers inflict on citizens and noncitizens alike offends basic notions of fairness and discourages economic and cultural exchange that fuels our country. Border residents spoke up to demand a transparent investigation into the abusive culture rooted in our nation’s largest police force. CBP is long overdue for a heavy dose of accountability reforms.”

 

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“You’re a whore.”

That’s what a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer told 51-year-old grandmother Amanda Rodríguez, as she passed through the Ysleta port of entry in El Paso, TX for her weekly shopping trip to Walmart. Her ordeal began last September when the agent stopped her at the border for a routine inspection as she crossed from Ciudad Juarez to El Paso to run errands. At the port of entry, the agent made sexist comments about her looks and asked her leading questions about whether she was entering the U.S. to perform “favors.” Rodríguez, who was confused by the line of questioning, didn’t understand well enough to contradict the agent’s allegations that she was a sex worker.

“Andas de puta,” the CBP officer aggressively told her, without any evidence to back up his claim: “You are a whore.”
Mrs. Rodríguez is not, nor has ever been a sex worker. With her husband of 33 years, Mrs. Rodríguez is a proud mother of two who, when not doting on her grandchild at home, works part-time for a community group that helps support women in Ciudad Juárez  seeking to escape domestic violence. But none of this mattered when things came to a head the following month.

When she tried to cross into El Paso again in October to get her shopping done, CBP immediately pulled her aside and detained her for ten hours. They falsely accused her of prostitution, threatened her with jail time, mocked her women’s rights work in Ciudad Juárez, and coerced her into signing a document  containing a falsified interrogation in English that she didn’t understand. They then told her that they had revoked her visa and she would be barred from entering the United States for a period of five years.

Ms. Rodríguez’ story is one of thirteen cases the ACLU of New Mexico Regional Center for Border Rights has urged the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General and CBP Office of Professional Responsibility to investigate today.

The complaint details CBP officers at ports of entry in El Paso, Texas and southern New Mexico: forcefully yanking a defenseless boy out of a vehicle; calling a noncitizen “wetback” and denying access to her diabetes medication; subjecting multiple men and women, two of them in their fifties, to humiliating strip searches without consent; and coercing individuals to accept swift deportations with long-term consequences that bypass the judicial process. In multiple cases, border residents reported that CBP officers discouraged or failed to inform them of how to file a complaint.

As a border resident, I myself have experienced misogynistic and unprofessional treatment at a port of entry. Last year, while waiting at the Bridge of the Americas in El Paso, a CBP officer tapped on my car window to pry into my relationship status and ask for my phone number. I politely declined, but then agonized as he continued to follow my car and peer inside. As any woman knows, it is scary to face unwanted advances from men in public. It is doubly frightening when unwanted advances come from an armed man who claims extraordinary power to pull you out of your car, detain you, and order you to be strip searched.

Every day, more than 600,000 people nationwide lawfully enter the United States through land ports of entry to vacation, visit family or shop. Cross-border commerce with Mexico, our top trade partner, fuels state economies and creates 1 in 24 jobs nationwide. Rather than celebrate border communities’ economic contributions and unprecedented public safety, irresponsible rhetoric has led to a dramatic buildup of CBP enforcement without commensurate investment in oversight and accountability.

Unfortunately, CBP officers who conduct themselves unprofessionally or abuse people are unlikely to face any sort of discipline. Peer law enforcement professionals, including a former top official at CBP, didn’t mince words when they recently concluded, “The CBP discipline system is broken.” Indeed, a May 2012 complaint filed by ACLU affiliates and detailing similar abuses at ports of entry border wide has gone largely uninvestigated.

Despite minimum standards developed to bring CBP in line with the principles of the Federal Prison Rape Elimination Act, a recent DHS Office of Inspector General audit found CBP lacks consistent reporting requirements or policies to ensure meaningful investigation of sexual assault or abuse allegations. That’s not comforting news for an agency whose former head of Internal Affairs blew the whistle on a “spike” of sexual misconduct cases between 2012 and 2014—a rate far exceeding other federal law enforcement agencies.

CBP’s newly minted Office of Professional Responsibility has a real test before it to uproot a culture of impunity firmly taken hold in our nation’s largest police force. Failure to transparently investigate allegations undermines public confidence that CBP takes abuse seriously and does a disservice to officers who act professionally.

Ultimately, reforming CBP culture will require changing officers’ beliefs and potential biases, including those related to gender. When CBP officers dismiss women’s rights or act as if a badge empowers them to make unwanted advances, they offend our most basic understandings of equity. That a single officer can hurl unfounded allegations, based on bias and not evidence, strip that person of their dignity, and then act as judge, jury and deporter makes a mockery of American values of justice.

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 Cynthia Pompa is a native of the border region, growing up in Ciudad Juarez and El Paso, Tex. She currently works as the Field Organizer for the ACLU of New Mexico Regional Center for Border Rights
 

ACLU-NM lawsuit pushes PED to remove ban against “disparaging” standardized tests
 
SANTA FE, NM—In response to a free speech lawsuit filed in March by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico, the New Mexico Public Education Department (PED) announced that it will begin the process of removing the rule that prohibits PED employees from “disparaging” standardized tests. The PED will ask the court for a stay in the lawsuit while it goes through the necessary steps to remove the gag rule from the books.

“We are extremely pleased that the Public Education Department has chosen to do the right thing and strike this unconstitutional gag rule from the books,” said ACLU-NM Staff Attorney María Mártinez Sánchez. “Many NM educators have serious and legitimate concerns about overreliance on standardized testing, and the harms it can cause to individual students and the educational process as a whole. We should be listening to the teachers’ expertise on these issues, not trying to stifle their free speech by threatening their jobs.”

The ACLU of New Mexico filed the lawsuit on behalf of four Albuquerque elementary school teachers, a special education teacher in Santa Fe, and an Albuquerque parent who currently has a child in the public school system. The suit alleged that the gag rule violates New Mexico constitutional free speech protections. The non-disparagement regulation states that teachers and other employees are prohibited from “disparag[ing] or diminish[ing] the significance, importance, or use of standardized tests,” on pain of “suspension or revocation of a person’s educator or administrator licensure or other PED licensure…” The lawsuit brought multiple state constitutional claims against PED including viewpoint discrimination, denial of due process of law, and violation of New Mexico public school students’ fundamental right to education.

“This end to the testing gag rule is a weight off our shoulders,” said plaintiff Mary Mackie, a teacher at Montezuma Elementary School in Albuquerque, NM. “Educators need to be able to have open and honest conversations about standardized tests, not just in the public sphere, but also in talking with parents about what’s best for their children. I’ve seen situations where standardized testing can actually be harmful to the education and well-being of certain students, and parents have a right to hear that from their child’s teacher.”

ACLU-NM Legal Director Alexandra Freedman Smith, ACLU-NM Staff Attorney Maria Sanchez, and ACLU-NM Cooperating Attorneys Laura Schauer Ives, Katherine Wray, and Jane Katherine Girard represent the plaintiffs in this case.

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