Newspaper Tree

<a href="http://www.newspapertree.com/">Newspaper Tree</a> is a nonpartisan, public service 501(c)(3) media organization based in El Paso, Texas. Our mission is to promote civic engagement and public discourse in government, education, the arts, health, business and other areas of interest to the El Paso-Juárez borderlands. Our vision is to serve our community as a source of innovation in news and information and to grow an enduring public media brand authentic to our bi-national roots.

A Border Patrol agent processes individuals at a facility in Nogales, Arizona. (CBP Photography / www.flickr.com License: Creative Commons License)

The War at Home: Report documents physical, verbal abuse of migrants by Border Patrol

By Newspaper Tree | February 7, 2014

By Alberto Tomas Halpern

Javier, a 35-year-old from Hidalgo, Mexico, was en route to New York where friends were going to help him find work. He had planned on returning back home after a few years working in the United States. Javier never made it past the border. He was apprehended by Border Patrol officers in January 2012 as he attempted to cross into the United States near Nogales, Sonora. Javier is one of many recently repatriated migrants from Mexico who have detailed physical, verbal and psychological abuse—including beatings, sleep deprivation and racial slurs—by Border Patrol officers after being apprehended along the U.S.-Mexico border.