Migrants at the border report 'unnecessary' family separation and verbal abuse by U.S. authorities

Migrant advocates say there is an increase in "unnecessary" family separations in the U.S.-Mexico border, documenting stories of mistreatment by U.S. authorities, a new report by The Arizona Republic shows.

The stories come from the Kino Border Initiative in Ambos Nogales, a humanitarian aid organization that started to track high numbers of Mexicans returned to Mexico with no change of asylum status.

Since then, the organization has met migrants who have lost touch with their family members after agents sent them back. They have found 101 instances over two weeks with 78% of these incidents involving separation from parents, spouses, children or siblings.

"Now what we are seeing is they're unnecessarily punishing people, separating grandparents from their granddaughters, separating siblings or separating, aunts or uncles from their nieces and nephews and, sending them (back) through different ports of entry" and at different hours of the day, said Pedro De Velasco, the director of education and advocacy of the Kino Border Initiative.

One example documented by the initiative involved a woman separated from her brother and granddaughter after they presented themselves to the U.S. Border Patrol. They requested asylum, but the woman was deported back to Mexico, while her granddaughter remained under Border Patrol custody. The woman did not know what happened to her granddaughter. According to The Arizona Republic.

De Velasco said that separating families goes against guidelines published by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Biden has expressed a similar sentiment in an ad against Donald Trump, where he criticized Trump's separation policy which was in place between 2017 and 2018.

But the government agency says they try to keep family groups together.

In a memorandum from April 2023, Troy Miller, the senior official performing the duties of the commissioner for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said the agency seeks to keep family groups together. Family groups include parents, grandparents, or legal guardians with their unmarried children between the ages 18 to 25; spouses 18 and older or unmarried siblings between the ages of 18 and 25.

If the members of the group cannot provide documentation, "CBP officers and agents will not record or link the individuals as a family group and continue to process the individual(s) as a single adult," reads the memorandum.

In addition to family separations, migrants are also reporting physical and verbal abuse, poor detention conditions and personal belongings that are not returned, the Kino Border Initiative reports.

One migrant told the Initiative that she was traveling with her mother and two-year-old daughter. They tried to ask for asylum, but they weren't allowed to speak, and she said she was scared to insist. While detained, a Border Patrol agent yelled at her daughter and startled her. He and the other agents reportedly laughed at her.

CBP says formal complaints made of misstatement are thoroughly investigated. But De Velasco said such investigations take too long. For instance, in June, the organization received a reply from a complaint submitted in August 2021.

De Velasco also said he often receives the same canned response noting the information was recorded in the Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties database and that no further action will be taken.