Watch Crossing the Line on PBS. See more from Need To Know.

By Vicki B. Gaubeca, ACLU of New Mexico and Krystal Gómez, ACLU of Texas
 
A year ago this week, a young woman working with the ACLU of New Mexico arrived at the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) offices at the Ysleta-Zaragoza port of entry in El Paso/Ciudad Juárez. She was there to meet with a New Mexico State Police sergeant investigating her allegations of sexual assault by a Border Patrol agent that occurred while she was detained at a fixed checkpoint in NM. The meeting had been arranged in advance with CBP officials at the port of entry by the NM State Police, and CBP was made aware of the nature of the meeting.
What happened next frightened the young woman  so much that she dropped the investigation. This story, along with other stories of CBP abuse, will be featured tonight in a PBS special report on the program Need to Know. (Please see local listings for air times.)
This case is only one of many stories of abuse and impunity at the hands of CBP officers. The ACLU recently documented eleven cases of abuse at official ports of entry in a letter to the Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The cases come from ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border, and most involve U.S. citizens. The letter calls for an investigation into the cases and increased oversight of DHS Customs and Border Protection, an agency that has swelled in size to become the largest federal law enforcement agency in the country.
 
This PBS Need to Know documentary is the second installment in the series, “Crossing the Line,” that aired April 20 and focused on deaths and serious injuries caused by CBP officials.  The April 20th segment told the story of Anastasio Hernandez-Rojas, a 42-year-old father of five who, in May 2010, died after a group of CBP officers beat him and shocked him with tasers at the San Ysidro port of entry near San Diego.  Live videotape of the beating shows bystanders calling on the officers to stop beating Hernandez-Rojas, hogtied and lying prostrate on the ground, as he screamed in pain and pled for his life.
 
On July 24-26, 2012, a delegation that includes members from ACLU-San Diego and Imperial Counties, ACLU-New Mexico and ACLU-Texas will travel to Washington, D.C., to meet with White House staff members, top officials at DHS and CBP, and congressional members to demand more accountability and oversight of Border Patrol agents.
 
Congress should create an external, independent oversight commission with investigatory, auditing, and subpoena power to respond to complaints from whistleblowers and the general public about CBP abuses, while protecting the identity and status of complainants. The oversight commission, which should include non-governmental organizations among its members, should be required to issue public reports on its activity and have the authority to make legislative, regulatory, or policy recommendations.
 
The time has come to create a mechanism for holding CBP accountable and to check the rising trend of abuse and deaths.
 
 

httpv://youtu.be/oWxj2in1uOY

 

SIGN THE PETITION

Ask Walgreens to adopt a policy that will ensure women receive seamless health care when individual pharmacists refuse to fill medications because of personal moral objections. Sign now.

My name is Susanne Koestner, and I want to share something disturbing that happened to me earlier this month. On Sunday, June 10, I called in to the Walgreen’s Pharmacy at 10300 Central SE in Albuquerque to refill my birth control prescription. The pharmacist on duty told me that he couldn’t fill my prescription and said I would have to wait until the next day for another pharmacist to fill it. When I asked why, he said, “Because it’s against my religious beliefs.”
 
I needed my medication immediately and couldn’t wait until the next day. I was forced to drive to a different part of town to get my prescription filled. Walgreens put the burden on me to find a pharmacist that had no personal objections to the medication my doctor prescribed me.
 
Will you join me in asking Walgreens to ensure that their employees’ religious beliefs don’t compromise women’s health care?
 
While religious freedom is important, religion should not be used to discriminate against people, and that is what happened to me.  Something is very wrong when a man can walk in to any pharmacy and buy condoms, but a woman can’t fill a birth control prescription prescribed to her by a doctor. Employers shouldmake reasonable accommodations for employees’ individual religious beliefs, but they should never do so at the expense of others.
 
As a patient, I am at the mercy of licensed pharmacists and pharmacies when it comes to being able to receive the medications my doctor has prescribed for me. I do not believe that I should be unable to receive my medication based on the individual beliefs of each pharmacist.  It is Walgreens’ responsibility to provide seamless patient care to me.
 
Walgreen’s failed me in this respect, and I want to make sure that no other woman is ever refused essential health care. For many women in rural areas of New Mexico, there is no other pharmacy across town to go to if they are refused service.  And for many medications, including birth control pills, it is not acceptable to be forced to wait until a pharmacist with different beliefs is on duty to receive medication.
 
The ACLU of New Mexico and the Southwest Women’s Law Center sent a letter to Walgreens’ Corporate Headquarters yesterday, asking them to adopt a policy would guarantee that customers receive seamless care regardless of the beliefs of their individual employees. Please lend your voice as well by signing our petetition, and let Walgreens know that it is unacceptable to erect barriers between women and essential health care.
 
Sincerely,
Susanne Koestner
 
UPDATE: The Walgreens petition is now closed and has been sent to the company's district office headquarters. Thanks to the 1,084 people who took action on this important issue!