El Paso hospital and doctors compensate New Mexico woman for their role in an illegal body cavity search performed at the border 

EL PASO, TX—The University Medical Center of El Paso and emergency room physicians have paid a New Mexico woman $1.1 million for their role in the traumatic body cavity searches she suffered at the facility, announced the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico and the ACLU of Texas today. The hospital has also agreed to review recent revisions to its internal policies governing law enforcement searches with ACLU lawyers. According to charges in a lawsuit filed in December of last year, medical professionals performed the highly invasive searches without a warrant at the behest of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents.

“We are very pleased that the hospital has taken steps to alleviate the great wrong done to our client,” said ACLU of New Mexico cooperating attorney Laura Schauer Ives. “We hope this settlement will stand as a powerful reminder to other doctors and medical facilities that they have the right and responsibility to refuse to carry out unjustified, unnecessary, demeaning searches on behalf of law enforcement.”

The ordeal began when a K-9 unit allegedly “alerted” on the ACLU’s client, a 54-year-old woman from New Mexico, as she attempted to return to the U.S. from Mexico via a bridge in El Paso. CBP agents frisked and strip-searched her. Despite finding no contraband, they then transported her in handcuffs to the University Medical Center of El Paso, where doctors subjected her to an observed bowel movement, X-ray, speculum exam, rectal exam, vaginal exam, and a CT scan.  After a period of six hours of fruitless searches, the agents released the plaintiff without charge. 

The plaintiff is deeply traumatized by the painful cavity searches government agents forced her to endure and continues to suffer emotional and psychological after effects.
“Despite the trauma and humiliation endured by our client, she had the courage to step forward,” said Rebecca L. Robertson, legal and policy director for the ACLU of Texas. “Because of her, the hospital has changed its policy to prevent this from happening to others. Now we hope that CBP will also take responsibility and stop subjecting innocent people to unconstitutional and abusive searches.”

The plaintiff’s claims against CBP personnel for the illegal searches remain pending in federal court. A copy of the original legal complaint can be read here: Doe Complaint
 

Report Shows Injustice, Suffering, Caused by SWAT Teams Deployed for Low-Level Police Work, Not Crises

 
NEW YORK – After obtaining and analyzing thousands of documents from police departments around the country, today the American Civil Liberties Union released the report War Comes Home: The Excessive Militarization of American Policing. The ACLU focused on more than 800 SWAT raids conducted by law enforcement agencies in 20 states and on the agencies’ acquisition of military weaponry, vehicles, and equipment.
 
“We found that police overwhelmingly use SWAT raids not for extreme emergencies like hostage situations but to carry out such basic police work as serving warrants or searching for a small amount of drugs,” said Kara Dansky, Senior Counsel with the ACLU’s Center for Justice. ”Carried out by ten or more officers armed with assault rifles, flashbang grenades, and battering rams, these paramilitary raids disproportionately impacted people of color, sending the clear message that the families being raided are the enemy. This unnecessary violence causes property damage, injury, and death.”
 
The report documents multiple tragedies caused by police carrying out needless SWAT raids, including a 26-year-old mother shot with her child in her arms and a 19-month-old baby critically injured when a flashbang grenade landed in his crib.
 
“The national trend of police militarization is clearly felt here in New Mexico,” said ACLU of New Mexico Executive Director Peter Simonson. “We have towns like Farmington operating armored vehicles and the Albuquerque Police Department shooting civilians at alarming rates. This military mindset coupled with assault style tactics and weapons positions the public as the enemy, rather than human beings they have sworn to serve and protect.”
 
The report calls for the federal government to rein in the incentives for police to militarize. The ACLU also asks that local, state, and federal governments track the use of SWAT and the guns, tanks, and other military equipment that end up in police hands.
 
“Our findings reveal not only the dangers of militarized police, but also the difficulties in determining the extent and impact of those dangers. At every level – from the police to the state governments to the federal government – there is almost no recordkeeping about SWAT or the use of military weapons and vehicles by local law enforcement,” noted Dansky.
 
In addition, the report recommends that state legislatures and municipalities develop criteria for SWAT raids that limit their deployment to the kinds of emergencies for which they were intended, such as an active shooter situation.
 
The report is available here: www.aclu.org/militarization.

ALBUQUERQUE, NM—The ACLU of New Mexico issued strong condemnation of the Albuquerque Police Department today following revelations that undercover officers from the department’s criminal intelligence unit had attended last Saturday’s demonstration to gather intelligence on protesters. This morning The ACLU of New Mexico filed a public records request, demanding that the APD release any surveillance data they collected at the June 21 protest.
“Unless the APD had evidence that a crime was taking place during Saturday’s protest, they had absolutely no business gathering intelligence on protesters,” said ACLU-NM Executive Director Peter Simonson. “It not only shows a shocking disregard for free speech rights, but also a numbness to the community’s distrust of the APD and the need to rebuild public confidence in the department. Instead of trying to win back the public’s respect, the APD reminded the community that it broadly views civilians with disdain and distrust.”
At least one undercover officer was recognized in the crowd at the protest in Robinson Park, filming speakers at the protest and panning his camera through the crowd, documenting which citizens were in attendance. This incident may be in direct conflict with the Albuquerque Police Department’s own policy governing the Gathering of Criminal Activity Information. The following is an excerpt from that policy (1-21-6 [D], emphasis added):
D.  Unless the information is necessary and relevant to the investigation of criminal wrongdoing, information will not be collected on any individual or organization based on any of the following:

1. 1.     Ethnic background or race;
2. 2.     Support of unpopular causes;
3. 3.     Religious or political affiliations; or
4. Personal habits or lifestyles.

“We’re filing a public records request to get at the heart of this matter: is APD conducting a legitimate investigation, or is it surveilling innocent civilians because of their political viewpoints?” said ACLU-NM Legal Director Alexandra Freedman Smith. “We know that the APD has spied on political activists in the past, it appears that we’re seeing more of the same.”
Past ACLU of New Mexico cases have identified two separate instances where APD inappropriately gathered data on innocent civilians because of their political activities:

• In the late 80s, hours after the ACLU of New Mexico obtained a court order to preserve 1,362 APD files containing 10 years’ worth of intelligence on Albuquerque citizens that may have included evidence of unconstitutional police investigations, APD destroyed the files by burning them in the street.
• In 2003, the ACLU of New Mexico’s lawsuit against APD for the violent suppression of a peaceful protest against the Iraq War revealed officers had infiltrated activist groups, posing as protest supporters to gain intelligence on citizens’ constitutionally protected activities.

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