Joint Complaint on Forcible Separation of Families in Customs and Border Protection Custody

The Women’s Refugee Commission and several other organizations filed a complaint with the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) and Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL) on behalf of family members who have been forcibly separated while in custody at the southern border of the United States. The complaint highlights an alarming number of instances in which family members who arrived together at the U.S. border appeared to have been separated by U.S. immigration officials without a clear or reasonable justification, as a means of punishment and/or deterrence, and with few mechanisms to locate, contact, or reunite with family members. The complaint also includes case examples of separation involving toddlers as young as two years old who were effectively rendered “unaccompanied” due to separation from their parents.