Cavity Searches and Forced Bowel Movements

Woman's Lawsuit Alleges Horrifying Abuse By Border Officers

Roque Planas, HuffPost

Customs and Border Protection and a Texas hospital allegedly subjected a woman to repeated anal and vaginal cavity searches over a period of six hours without her consent and without a warrant, leaving her traumatized, according to a lawsuit filed in December. The hospital then allegedly sent the woman a bill for more than $5,000 after she refused to sign a consent form.

The civil lawsuit against CBP and the University Medical Center of El Paso, where some of the cavity searches were performed, raises questions about what legal protections are available to people when crossing an increasingly militarized border.

"Whether or not this reflects a pattern of practice [at CBP] is not yet clear," the woman's attorney, Laura Schauer Ives, told The Huffington Post. "But that the agents felt emboldened to do this, I think, is telling."

According to the complaint, which received renewed attention this past weekend after being featured on the public radio show "On the Media," the plaintiff is a 54-year-old woman from New Mexico who traveled to Ciudad Juárez in December 2012 to visit a close family friend who had been deported. The plaintiff, a U.S. citizen, asked the court to proceed anonymously due to the "highly personal and sensitive nature of the events."

(More here.)