Washington: In their treatment of migrants at the US-Mexico border, border patrol agents routinely violate human rights without being held accountable, according to a new report released on Wednesday by two NGOs with a focus on Latin America.

According to the report from the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) and the Kino Border Initiative (KBI), border agents have used abusive language, denied people food, and separated families while holding people in custody who died under mysterious circumstances.

The report stated that "Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the largest civilian law enforcement agency of the federal government, has a persistent problem of human rights abuse without accountability."

CBP did not reply to AFP's request for comment right away. 13 fatalities involving Border Patrol agents have been recorded by WOLA and KBI since 2020. These incidents occurred "under circumstances in which it is unclear whether they faced an imminent threat" or "failed to prevent the death of an individual in custody."

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KBI listed 78 complaints it filed between 2020 and 2022 in a section describing how formal complaints to CBP frequently go unresolved.
Only 5% "led to either policy recommendations or recommended discipline for the agent in question," according to the report.

In a statement, report co-author Adam Isacson said, "We have documented a shocking pattern, including cases of misuse of lethal force, intimidation, sexual harassment, and document falsification."

"The absence of accountability is so pervasive that it contributes to the establishment of a culture that condones human rights violations. Because impunity is so likely, the abuses continue.

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Many of the alleged abuses are allegedly committed against migrants who have turned themselves in to the police or been detained.
In one incident detailed in the report, a Salvadoran woman and her family barged into a Border Patrol vehicle in an attempt to request asylum.
According to the report, an agent got out of the truck and pointed a gun at the mother while referring to them as "terrorists," "rats," and "criminals."

The woman asked for asylum again to seven or eight more agents, but they ignored her and said they didn't speak Spanish.

The CBP facilities are supposed to hold undocumented immigrants for up to 72 hours while their cases are processed, but in reality, according to the NGOs, some remain for a week or longer in what they describe as unsanitary conditions.
Family separation still happens, the report said, even though it's less frequent now than it was under the previous administration of former President Donald Trump.

According to information from the Department of Health and Human Services, 145 migrant children were separated from their parents during the 2022 fiscal year.
 Separations between spouses and siblings have also occurred.

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One 17-year-old who had crossed with him claimed to have been sent back to Mexico without knowing where his younger brother had ended up.
The study "shows frequent and severe alleged abuses," according to WOLA and KBI. "While many, if not most CBP officers and Border Patrol agents follow best practises," the statement from WOLA and KBI read.

"We believe that it is possible to enact common-sense reforms that stop cruelty and align border governance with democratic values, even at a time when larger national debates on border and immigration policy are polarised," the report's authors continued.