U.S. Customs and Border Patrol must pay a family $1.5 million after agents falsely imprisoned a 9-year-old girl and her teenage brother who were entering the United States from Mexico to go to school, it ruled. a federal judge this month.
U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel ruled that the agency falsely imprisoned two U.S. citizens: Julia, then 9, for 34 hours and her brother, Oscar, then 14, for about 14 hours. Curiel also found that the agency was responsible for intentionally causing emotional distress and negligence in the 2019 incident, which was first reported by the San Diego Union Tribune.
“The government's conduct in detaining U.S. citizen children at the border for 14 and 34 hours, respectively… exceeded all bounds of what is normally tolerated in a civilized community,” Curiel wrote in his ruling.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Wednesday.
Julia and Oscar, who lived in Tijuana with their parents, were attempting to cross the border at the San Ysidro port of entry to attend school in the United States on March 18, 2019, according to the family's lawsuit filed in 2022.
The couple had crossed the border many times before, but the situation took an unusual turn when they were detained after a border patrol officer noticed a dot on Julia's passport photo that appeared to be a mole that she didn't have in person.
The brothers were taken to a secondary inspection area where a supervisor selected an officer with a “reputation for obtaining confessions” to interview them. The officer allegedly pressured Julia into saying that she was actually her Mexican cousin, according to court records.
No one else was in the room during the interview, which was a violation of agency policy, Curiel said in his ruling. The government refuted the idea that agents forced the girl to falsely say she was her cousin. They maintained in court records that she and Oscar said, without being asked, that the girl's name was Melany. This “confession” led agents to suspect that Oscar was trafficking the girl, according to court documents.
Curiel criticized the agents in his ruling for failing to interview family members who could have provided evidence of the girl's identity and for failing to review documents that could have allayed their suspicions.
“Common sense and ordinary human experience indicate that it was unreasonable to detain Julia for 34 hours to determine her identity or detain Oscar for approximately 14 hours to determine whether he was trafficking or smuggling his sister when multiple means of investigation were available and “Unjustifiably, we did not pursue them,” Curiel wrote.
While the children were held in separate holding cells, their mother, Thelma Medina Navarro, and other family members attempted to find out where they were and provide documentation showing their identities.
Oscar was released that same night, but Julia remained in custody. Navarro, who was desperate to have her daughter released, went to the television outlet Telemundo and recorded an interview. The next day, the Mexican Consulate sent representatives to interview Julia. They determined her true identity and she was released, according to court records.
The two children remain distraught after the incident. Oscar's grades dropped and his parents sought therapy for him. Julia, who was also in therapy after her arrest, also suffered from insomnia and nightmares that have continued for years, Curiel wrote in her ruling.
Curiel awarded $250,000 to the children's mother, $175,000 to Oscar and $1.1 million to Julia.
The family's attorney, Joseph McMullen, said he appreciated Curiel not only for the verdict, but also for giving him “the opportunity to examine at trial the high-level CBP officials who were complicit in this outrageous conduct.”
He said the agency took no action to correct or investigate the behavior that led to the false confessions.
“No interviews were conducted with employees. All audio and video evidence was removed. “CBP simply issued a press release blaming the children and swept the rest under the rug,” McMullen said. “If CBP attempts to hide the truth when U.S. citizen children are treated so outrageously, imagine how often misconduct against undocumented children will remain uncorrected. “I find that deeply worrying.”
