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12/15/2005
News
Alone on the border
By Tim Vanderpool

Border Patrol neglect may place kids at risk

There’s the lanky 16-year-old who wades the Rio Grande and ends up in Border Patrol custody. Or the frightened, wan little girl from Chiapas; she crosses with a coyote, seeking her mom in some mystery city called Topeka. Instead, she lands behind bars in Douglas, Arizona.

They are faces of the future, counted among the increasing numbers of unaccompanied children filtering across the U.S.-Mexico line. But they are also visages of controversy, amid allegations that the Border Patrol routinely mishandles these most vulnerable of travelers.

Despite rampant trafficking and exploitation of children along the international boundary, two agents contend that the Border Patrol routinely throws these kids to the wolves. “They’re sending unaccompanied minors back to the port with strangers,� says Ephraim Cruz, who’s now on unpaid leave from the BP’s Douglas outpost. “This is routine practice.�

When unaccompanied children arrive in Douglas detention, “agents will actually go to (the adults’) cells and ask whether anybody is willing to claimâ€â€