New York Times
By Julia Preston
June 12, 2014
Border
officials opened an investigation on Thursday into claims by legal aid
groups that border agents were mistreating unaccompanied minors caught
crossing the Southwest
border illegally.
At
a news conference in Washington, the commissioner of Customs and Border
Protection, Gil Kerlikowske, said he had ordered internal investigators
to examine a complaint
filed Wednesday by five legal groups. The complaint was based on
interviews with 116 youths, in which they reported being deprived of
food and medical care while in Border Patrol holding cells. Some
reported physical abuse.
Mr.
Kerlikowske’s announcement was a break from past practices for the
agency. In recent years, the agency has rarely confirmed investigations
of complaints of misconduct
by border agents or reported actions resulting from them.
Border
authorities are dealing with a humanitarian crisis as over 47,000 young
migrants without their parents, mainly from Central America, have been
apprehended since
October crossing illegally. President Obama has ordered the Federal
Emergency Management Agency to coordinate an effort to provide shelters
and help the youths reunite with family in this country.
The
complaint of abuse was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of
Arizona and the National Immigrant Justice Center in Chicago, among
other groups. Mr. Kerlikowske,
while pledging to respond, also offered a defense of “absolutely heroic
efforts” by Border Patrol agents handling the detention of the youths.
“Agents
are doing everything from mixing formula to bringing in their own
children’s clothing, and taking care of these kids in a multitude of
ways,” Mr. Kerlikowske said.
“They are absolutely committed in making sure that these children are
treated, not only in the most respectful and humane way, but frankly, in
the most loving way.“
Officials
also sought to dispel criticism from Republican lawmakers that they are
encouraging young people to migrate by allowing them into the country,
placing them in
shelters and delaying their deportation.
An
internal Border Patrol report, based on interviews on May 28 with 230
Central American migrants detained in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas,
said the main reason they
cited for coming was they had heard rumors that the American
authorities were giving, only until the end of June, a special entry
“permit” to unaccompanied minors and women traveling with children.
Jeh
C. Johnson, the secretary of Homeland Security, said the authorities
were required to transfer unaccompanied youths, in accordance with “the
best interests of the
child,” to Health and Human Services, the federal agency that runs
shelters where they receive basic medical care and some education.
Health officials must also make efforts to reunite minors with family
members in this country.
But
the officials said the young migrants remain in deportation proceedings
after they have been released to family, and must attend immigration
court hearings and comply
with judges’ rulings. As recent illegal crossers, they are priorities
for deportation.
Mr.
Johnson said parents here illegally should not be encouraged to send
for their children. “Illegal migration through the South Texas border is
not safe,” he said. “I’m
not encouraging in any way shape or form illegal migration, that’s the
message.”
In
Arizona, the attorney general, Tom Horne, demanded in a letter on
Thursday that Homeland Security officials stop transferring women with
their children who were detained
in Texas to that state, or he would sue. In recent days, hundreds of
those migrants have been released without assistance at the bus station
in Phoenix.
Mr.
Johnson told Congress on Wednesday that since June 1, mainly
unaccompanied minors, rather than women with children, were being
transferred for processing to Arizona,
and that the minors would not be released in the state.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
No comments:
Post a Comment