Watchdog Report Alleges that US Agents Abused Migrants
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A watchdog report suggests oversight at the US Department of Homeland Security following the surfacing of allegations of physical, sexual, and other abuses of asylum seekers by US border authorities.
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The watchdog report alleges that US agents abused migrants.
A new watchdog report accuses US officials of abusing asylum-seeking migrants in recent years, suggesting oversight at the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and other immigration enforcement agencies, Hope Border Institute Deputy Director Marisa Limon Garza told Sputnik.
"This report is sobering and absolutely necessary," Limon Garza said on Friday. "Each revelation helps the public understand how oversight is sorely needed for DHS and these enforcement agencies."
Garza went on to say that the harmful rhetoric directed at migrants in recent years has likely contributed to a culture of violence and impunity.
A DHS official told Sputnik on Thursday that the government does not accept that its employees carry out acts of abuse. However, the representative did not say whether DHS took any action in response to the allegations raised in the records received by the human rights organization.
Earlier this week, Human Rights Watch released more than 160 internal reports documenting allegations of physical, sexual, and other abuses of asylum seekers by US border authorities.
The records demonstrate that a supervisor in the San Francisco Asylum Office communicated their concern surrounding this matter through an internal report at the DHS:
"One of the applicants she [asylum officer] interviewed today has a young child who was sexually molested by someone we believe to be a CBP [Customs and Border Protection] or Border Patrol Officer."
Human Rights Watch got the extensively redacted documents under the Freedom of Information Act and found reports of due process breachings, harsh detention conditions, denial of medical care, and discriminatory treatment at or near the US-Mexican border.
