By Steve Neavling
From baby formula and medicine to cell phones and clothes, Border Patrol agents are throwing away many of the belongings of unauthorized migrants who are sent back to Mexico.
The discovery was revealed by several news outlets and the ACLU at a time when President Biden’s new border policy is forcing the quick removal of migrants at the southern border.
A woman who fled Mexico City with her husband and two children amid violent threats toward her family said agents tossed her clothes and cell phone, along with diapers and wet wipes for her children. She was found wearing a hospital-style paper shirt.
Border Patrol agents also threw away life-saving medications, including medicine for people with HIV.
In May, the General Accountability Office implored the Department of Homeland Security to provide clearer instructions for handling personal property.
“We’ve been doing this advocacy for a long time, and we still cannot come up with a single reason why people should be stripped of their birth certificates and not given those back,” Noah Schramm, border policy strategist for the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, told Cronkite News last month. “It just doesn’t make any sense.”
In the past, agents have been accused of seizing turbans belonging to Sikhs and destroying water caches left for migrants.
