Photo via of U.S. Customs and Border Protection
By Cronkite News
WASHINGTON – U.S. Customs and Border Protection has directed agents to stop discarding migrants’ personal belongings, after a scathing report detailing how medicine, clothes, cell phones, cash and identity documents have been taken by authorities at holding facilities and never returned.
The new rules classify legal documents, contact information and religious items as “essential personal property” that cannot be stripped from migrants. Phones, cash, medical documents and items of sentimental value must be stored, with migrants given written instructions on how to retrieve their belongings.
In April, the Government Accountability Office issued a report affirming long- standing complaints from migrants and their advocates, and documented hundreds of instances of migrants losing birth certificates, cash and clothing.
