EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – It was 25 years ago that Fernando Garcia and a group of volunteers began asking El Paso residents about their interaction with law enforcement officers.
The results were alarming.
“When we began in 2000, we recorded 150 to 160 cases of human rights and constitutional rights violations,” said Garcia, executive director of Border Network for Human Rights. “What we did with those findings is to educate the community about their rights during encounters with law enforcement and also approach the agencies we believed were engaged in a pattern of constitutional violations.”
The complaints included racial profiling, physical and psychological abuse, warrantless searches, arbitrary arrests and instant deportations without due process. Some things have improved during that 25-year period – there were years when no complaints were reported against the U.S. Border Patrol, for instance, and the agency reined in its vehicle pursuit policy to cut down on accidents.
“We educate the people and sometimes we educate the agencies themselves on how the community sees them and how they should always be cognizant of their rights,” Garcia said.
But new worries have surfaced with a new U.S. president bent on the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants and the arrival of thousands of soldiers to West Texas and Southern New Mexico. In addition, a federal immigration agency is rushing to hire new agents to look for and deport migrants.
Those are some of the reasons behind BNHR’s latest abuse documentation campaign set to begin this month. The group is setting up 30 tables near international ports of entry, in churches and businesses in neighborhoods with a high Hispanic or immigrant population from El Paso to Del Rio, Texas, and from Anthony, New Mexico, to Albuquerque.
“We will not prejudge. We have an objective documentation process. We ask if their rights are violated, they tell us then we go about verifying the allegations. Are there any witnesses? We learned that from journalists – that it is necessary to have who did what to whom, where and when. If we cannot verify, we won’t take the case,” Garcia said.
The volunteers range from moms of school-aged children to retirees. They will wear T-shirts with the documentation campaign logo and large badges with their names.
Some of them told Border Report they already have witnessed abusive behavior from law enforcement in their communities.
“They went into a place looking for one person and they took many. They detained a mother (in front of) a school and brought down her children from the bus. All the kids were upset,” said Maria Salazar.
She told the story of a neighbor who is a lawful permanent resident and whose vehicle was targeted by immigration agents looking for an unrelated individual. “They punctured her tires, and now they don’t want to pay for the damage,” Salazar said.
Lourdes Vasquez is a New Mexico activist who will be visiting churches, stores and other gathering places in Las Cruces, Anthony, Chaparral and Sunland Park.
“We see lots of worries in the community. They hear about ICE going into homes. They have been stopped walking in their neighborhoods,” Vasquez said, adding it is important for these residents to not be afraid of documenting these run-ins for the sake of accountability.
Garcia said he will present a report in October with the findings of the latest two-month documentation campaign. He said he will show the report to leaders of federal and local law enforcement agencies so they have a chance to respond.
Last year, Border Report reached out to U.S. Customs and Border Protection after Garcia released his 2024 abuse documentation report. CBP urged the complainants then to file formal complaints through official channels as soon as possible.
The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General has a telephone hotline at 800-323-8603. CBP has public information hotlines at 877-227-5511 for domestic calls; 202-325-8000 for callers from outside the United States.
The ICE Office of Professional Responsibility can be reached at 833-442-3677 to report misconduct including side immigration detention facilities.
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