Two American children who attempted to cross the US-Mexico border to go to school were detained by officials from the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Recently, a federal judge in Southern California ruled in favor of the two children, awarding them over $1 million in compensation.
Judge Gonzalo Curiel of Southern California made the ruling on June 21st. The lawsuit involved two children, Oscar Amparo Medina and his sister Julia Isabel Amparo, who were 14 and 9 years old respectively at the time of the incident in March 2019. They were detained by patrol officers at the Tijuana-San Ysidro border crossing.
According to the lawsuit filed by their parents on behalf of the siblings, the two children lived in Tijuana, Mexico, with their parents and siblings, and the incident occurred as they were on their way to school in San Ysidro.
Julia was detained for about 34 hours, while Oscar was held for approximately 14 hours because officials suspected they were providing false information about their identities. Officials even initially believed that Oscar might be attempting to smuggle or traffic his sister.
The plaintiffs sought responsibility under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) for false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and negligent conduct.
In his ruling, Judge Curiel pointed out, “Common sense and the experience of ordinary people tell us that it is unreasonable to detain Julia for 34 hours to verify her identity, or to detain Oscar for about 14 hours to determine if he is smuggling or trafficking his sister, especially when there are multiple investigative methods available and officials did not reasonably pursue them.”
A spokesperson for CBP stated in a statement to the media that the agency “takes all complaints seriously and strives to address all issues fairly and justly, including full compliance with the decisions of the federal district court.”
The lawsuit indicated that both children were born in the United States and are US citizens; however, their mother Selma is a Mexican citizen holding a valid US border crossing card, while their father did not have legal status or a visa to enter the US.
According to court documents, when the siblings attempted to enter the US through the pedestrian border crossing, they presented valid US passports. However, an agent noted a “dot” on Julia’s photo that appeared to be a mole above her lip, which was not visible on Julia herself.
Julia showed law enforcement officers her student ID from a Mexican school, but the court documents stated that the ID “did not resemble Julia.” The lawsuit documents claimed that during further questioning, an officer allegedly came up with the idea that Julia was her cousin Melany and pressured Julia to admit to it. The US government’s legal team strongly denied this claim, arguing that “Julia and Oscar voluntarily asserted that Julia was Melany and consistently maintained this throughout the entire interview process.”
The lawsuit also mentioned that when the children were detained, their mother was not notified. The plaintiffs’ attorneys wrote that after the children were released by the Border Patrol, they experienced mental stress, sorrow, anxiety, humiliation, and emotional trauma.
Judge Curiel concluded that the actions of US government officials were “extreme and outrageous”, violating the rights of the two children. The judge also noted that a CBP officer conducted a private interview with Julia without witnesses or recordings, which violated CBP regulations. The judge said this resulted in a “false admission.”
“Due to the lack of recording, witnesses, or even any written records of this admission, we will never know why a 9-year-old US citizen would falsely claim to be someone else,” Curiel wrote in his ruling. “CBP violated the provisions against questioning minors alone.”
Curiel ultimately ruled, “While initial suspicions of Julia using someone else’s passport card to falsely claim US citizenship may have been reasonable, the prolonged detention of both her and Oscar was unreasonable and violated the Fourth Amendment, as officials failed to take feasible steps to investigate their suspicions, and did not comply with CBP’s policies and precautions for dealing with detained minors.”
In the final judgment, Julia was awarded $1.1 million in compensation, Oscar was awarded $175,000, and Selma was granted $250,000.