US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) quietly revoked several internal policies designed to protect some of the most vulnerable, including pregnant women, babies, the elderly and those with severe medical conditions.
Decided, Outlined in the notes On May 5th, it eliminates four Biden-era policies signed by proxy Commissioner Pete Flores and enacted over the past three years. These policies were intended to address the longstanding failure of CBPs to provide adequate care to the most at-risk detainees.
The May 5th memo was distributed internally to top agency leadership but was not publicly released.
CBP justified the rollback by being mentioned in the withdrawal of the legacy policy notes relating to care and custody. This means that policies are “outdated” and “inconsistent” with the institution’s current enforcement priorities.
Together, the currently rescinded policy sets standards for detainees with increasing medical needs. For example, we will assign a facility to ensure access to water and food for pregnant people, privacy of breastfeeding mothers, and to hold diapers and unpublished formulas that are mandatory. They also instructed agents to process at-risk individuals as quickly as possible to limit their time in detention.
“It’s scary, and what the administration is trying to commit is merely an extension of a cruel culture,” says Sarah Mehta, deputy director of government affairs for the ACLU’s equality division. She says that when she retracts the policy, “it’s a terrible statement about the way this administration thinks and cares about people with young children.”
CBP did not immediately respond to Wired’s request for comment.
CBP, one of the world’s largest law enforcement agencies, is primarily responsible for arresting and detaining individuals who cross the US border without approval. While Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) oversees long-term detention and deportation procedures, the CBP handles the oldest stages of custody when immigrants are kept and processed in short-term facilities that repeatedly portray criticism of poor healthcare and overcrowding.
In January Senate Judiciary Committee We have issued a terrible report identifying functional impairments in CBP’s medical work. The investigation revealed ambiguous or nonexistent guidance for treating chronic understaffing, inappropriate use of medical records systems, and children with complex medical needs, pregnant individuals, and others.
The report was prompted by the death of an eight-year-old Anadith Danay Reyes Alvarez, He passed away in May 2023 at the CBP facility in Harlingen, Texas. A Panama girl who had a known history of heart problems and sickle cell anemia reportedly pleaded for help with her mother. Both were ignored. She died in custody. Her final hours were spent in facilities that were not equipped with staff to provide critical care and seemed disgusting at first glance.
“In a letter to the Trump administration last week, I raised serious concerns about transparency, accountability, and the humanitarian treatment of detained individuals, especially in light of repeated reports of detainee abuse and inadequate medical care.” “Instead of taking action to revise the course, the Trump administration has retracted several internal policies aimed at protecting some of the most vulnerable individuals in CBP custody, including pregnant women, children, the elderly and those with severe medical conditions.
