Infant born in US sent to Mexico with his mother by federal agents, complaint says
A family from Honduras, including a baby born in the U.S., seeking asylum was expelled to Mexico, according to a complaint filed with the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General.
The complaint filed by the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties and Jewish Family Service, calls for the department to investigate the family’s situation and for Customs and Border Protection to be held accountable for its “mistreatment of pregnant people” and “willful disregard for agency policies, U.S. law, and basic human decency.”
U.S. Customs and Border Protection have not responded to McClatchy News for comment.
The family, including a then-pregnant woman, her husband, and their 9-year-old son, fled Honduras and traveled through Mexico to seek asylum in the U.S., according to the complaint. They presented themselves at the border at Eagle Pass, Texas, in March and the family was placed on the Migrant Protection Protocols program, in which they were to wait in Mexico during their immigration proceedings.
“As a result of their forced placement in MPP, the family endured significant personal and material insecurity in Mexico for months,” the complaint said. “They struggled to access essential resources, including medical care, housing, and education for their son. They experienced discrimination and unsafe living conditions.”
The family traveled to the U.S. border on March 25 for their court hearing, but they were “accosted and detained by a group of armed men who attempted to extort them” on the way, according to the complaint. The hearing was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to the complaint, and they fled to Tijuana — more than 1,200 miles away.
The family turned themselves over to Border Patrol in San Diego on June 27, again seeking asylum, the complaint said.
The woman was experiencing pain and near the end of her pregnancy and was taken to Scripps Mercy Hospital in Chula Vista, according to the complaint. Her husband and her son were taken to El Chaparral, the border crossing at the San Ysidro Port of Entry. Despite the husband telling federal agents that he feared returning to Mexico, the agent told him and his son to cross into Mexico.
“I think we’re certainly well aware the ways in which CBP in particular, including Border Patrol, often acts like it is above the law or immune to any consequences professional or legal when there is misconduct or abuse or mistreatment of people,” Mitra Ebadolahi, a senior attorney at the ACLU, told Voices of San Diego. “None of that is, unfortunately, new. Much what was reported by this family is fairly consistent with these larger themes and trends.”
U.S. Customs and Border Protection told Voices of San Diego that it can’t comment on a complaint but “lack of comment should not be construed as agreement or stipulation with any of the allegations.”
The woman gave birth to a baby boy on June 28 and asked Border Patrol agents about her family but they said they didn’t have information, according to the complaint.
On June 30, Border Patrol agents took the woman and her newborn to the U.S.-Mexico border and told her to cross over, according to the complaint.
“Despite having expressed and explained her fears of being returned to Mexico,” she was “nevertheless coerced back to that country,” the complaint said.
Jewish Family Service Attorney Luis Gonzalez told WGNO that Border Patrol didn’t follow its policies before sending the mother and her baby to Mexico.
“We’re also dealing with a U.S. citizen sent to Mexico, the baby and mother have not received any medical attention, when they were released they were told they needed to follow up to days later,” Gonzalez told the publication.
“This family should have been granted release into the U.S. to await their asylum proceedings, as the Department of Homeland Security has done with more than 23,500 individuals — all in family units — over the past one and a half years across the San Diego border region,” Gonzalez told WGNO.
A federal judge struck down a Trump administration policy on July 1 that prevents migrants from seeking asylum in the U.S. if they didn’t first seek protection in the country they passed through, The New York Times reported.
This story was originally published July 14, 2020 at 5:10 PM with the headline "Infant born in US sent to Mexico with his mother by federal agents, complaint says."