• Many asylum seekers detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) at the southern border who our researchers spoke with went days or weeks without the ability to make a phone call or have any contact with the outside world, including with family and legal counsel. Some asylum seekers reported that they could not make a single call the entire time they were in CBP custody.
• In CBP custody, immigration officers subjected asylum seekers to medical neglect, physical and psychological mistreatment, and unbearable living conditions that are especially traumatizing for children. Some children were detained separately from one or both parents for days or weeks at a time, were hungry and cold, lacked toys to play with, and/or went over a month barely seeing the sun.
• The U.S. government has unlawfully removed and expelled to the countries they fled or to third countries – without a legally required fear screening – families and adults fleeing Afghanistan, Armenia, Ghana, Iran, Russia, Turkey, Uzbekistan, and other countries, subjecting people to potential persecution via refoulement or chain refoulement, and violating U.S. and international refugee law. This has separated families indefinitely, including parents separated from minor children in the United States with no path to reunite. The administration’s removal and expulsion of nearly 500 migrants in February 2025 to Costa Rica and Panama led to further violations of their rights.
• While the administration is, in some instances, providing very limited screenings to asylum seekers about their fear of torture, the government routinely ignores and removes without any screening asylum seekers who directly communicate with immigration officers regarding their fear of return, and even where provided, these torture screenings are a farce by design.