Report: Immigrants Are Often Denied Personal Property When Deported

By Kate Sheehy
December 11, 2014
Border
Border Patrol vehicle.

No More Deaths, a humanitarian group based in Southern Arizona, has released a report that claims that some immigrants who are stripped of their possessions when they are apprehended at the border never get the property back when they are deported.

According to "Shakedown: How Deportation Robs Immigrants of Their Money and Belongings," money, IDs and cellphones were often destroyed or never returned, making it impossible in some cases for immigrants to return home. The findings were based on almost 1,500 cases handled by No More Deaths’ Property Recovery Assistance Project over the last several years, and from 165 interviews about money-specific cases between 2013 and 2014. In many cases, returned funds were in a form that is difficult or impossible to use internationally.

“Checks and debit cards are being given to people upon deportation that are not acceptable in any reasonable way, because they’re meant to be a domestic, financial instrument in the U.S.” said Hannah Hafter, one of the authors of the study. 

“I don’t think that the Border Patrol or Immigration and Customs Enforcement really want people staying in the border region, and yet they’re creating a circumstance where people who want to leave, can’t,” she said.

Research from No More Deaths shows 64 percent of those interviewed had checks or money orders that could not be cashed in Mexico. About $37,000 was reported lost or unusable, and two-thirds of this amount was never recovered.

The report also references a 2013 University of Arizona study that cited more than 1,000 interviews with recently deported individuals. A key finding showed that 34 percent of people had at least one of their belongings taken and not returned.  

In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security, the parent agency of U.S. Customs and Border Protection said:

“DHS has strict standards in place to ensure that detainees’ personal property -- including funds, baggage and other effects -- is safeguarded and controlled while they are in detention and returned to them when they are released from CBP/ICE custody or removed from the United States. Any allegation of missing property will be thoroughly investigated.”

DHS also said that individuals in CBP custody are allowed to keep IDs or money on their person. It said personal property is tagged and stored and follows immigrants as they are processed and returned to them at the time of removal.

The report asserts that many Border Patrol stations hold personal belongings for 30 days from the day of arrest, with the exception of the Tucson Sector, which keeps belongings 30 days after the date of release. Hafter said that many people serve sentences for three months or six months, leading to property being destroyed before they have a chance to claim it.

Hafter said they have filed complaints in a small number of cases in which people alleged theft by federal and local law enforcement agents.

Some of the recommendations made to DHS in the report are:

Immigrant detainees must always have access to vital belongings while in custody, such as medications necessary for their health and phone numbers necessary to contact loved ones.

CBP should retain prosecuted individuals’ belongings for a minimum of 30 days past the end of their prison sentence or until ICE picks up the belongings. Belongings should never be destroyed while the owner is still serving a sentence.

DHS must create an accessible and transparent mechanism for accepting complaints filed by immigrant detainees and ensure adequate oversight to remedy the problems identified by the complaints.