Customs and Border Protection Issues Standards to Protect Detainees
- October 5, 2015
Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., October 5, 2015 — Today, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) released strong, and long-awaited, standards to prevent the sexual abuse of immigration detainees. CBP’s National Standards on Transport, Escort, Detention, and Search, which apply to the Border Patrol among other agencies within CBP, are a significant improvement over existing policy. The detention standards call for zero tolerance of sexual abuse of detainees, provide guidance on protecting particularly vulnerable detainees, and outline the minimum steps CBP officials must take following an assault. Just Detention International has been urging CBP to create robust sexual abuse policies since the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released, in 2014, Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) regulations that called on it to do so.
“People who are detained upon entering the United States need and deserve to be safe. Yet for far too long, men, women, and children in CBP custody have remained at risk for sexual assault,” said Lovisa Stannow, JDI’s Executive Director. “Fortunately, CBP’s new standards are a strong first step in ensuring their safety.”
Though broad, the CBP standards will reduce sexual assault only if each of its agencies fully adopts them. The Border Patrol — which is CBP’s largest agency and detains more than 400,000 people annually — faces major challenges in improving staff treatment of detainees. The release of these standards presents a perfect opportunity for Border Patrol’s leadership to demand improved staff behavior toward detainees. Additionally, CBP units will need to supplement these standards with specific policies that are required under PREA, including around staff training, oversight and accountability, and procedures for referring allegations of abuse for criminal prosecution.
“These policies will help keep people safe, and it is crucial that CBP commits to adopting them in all of its facilities,” said Stannow. “But JDI also knows from its work inside detention facilities nationwide that written policies must be only one part of a larger culture change effort that values the dignity of every detainee.”
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Just Detention International is a health and human rights organization that seeks to end sexual abuse in all forms of detention.