cessfully immigrated into the US. If they survive the dangerous areas of passage they then risk their rights as humans to La Migra, the Border Patrol. The number of cases of human rights abuses on the border is growing at the same rate as the intensification of the border crackdown with no end in site. The INS leaves a lasting impression on many of the hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants who are arrested by INS agents each year. Unfortunately the impression is one of mistreatment. There are discernible circumstances under which agents are more likely to go beyond apprehending undocumented migrants to judging and punishing them. One reason INS misconduct is so pervasive is that the agency does not adequately train or supervise its agents. The INS cites “ongoing training” in human rights via a mentor program, most of the training comes from older agents, many of whom may never had course work in human rights themselves. Too frequently, this means that the notions that federal agents are untouchable, that physical force is a necessary component of immigration law enforcement, and other similarly questionable attitudes are imparted in the new agents and perpetuated within the Border Patrol (Seltzer 1998). According to ongoing Immigration Law Enforcement Monitoring Project (ILEMP) monitoring, the occurrence of serious human rights abuses in South Texas during the enforcement of immigration law has increased 38% since the implementation of Operation Rio Grande (Seltzer 1998). Operation Rio Grande made the INS the largest law enforcement agency in the Rio Grande Valley. A significant number of these victims are U.S. citizens, legal residents, or persons seeking asylum. The Border Patrol participated in 79.2% of the abuses documented in this region (Seltzer 1998). This is indicative of the situation all along the border.According to AFSC’s monitoring project in March of 1998 an incident took place at th...
