"Human Rights Watch has filed suit against the US Department of Homeland Security for this failure to respond adequately to a Freedom of Information request about human rights abuses by border agents," the release said.
Government records that Human Rights Watch has received, though heavily redacted, demonstrate that asylum officers within the US Citizenship and Immigration Services have repeatedly provided internal reports on Customs and Border Protection’s practices, the release said.
"The Trump administration and the Obama administration before it have repeatedly run roughshod over asylum seekers’ rights at the border. This lawsuit is simply seeking the government’s own records," Human Rights watch senior researcher Clara Long said in the release.
The documents provide details about multiple cases of intimidation, verbal and even physical abuse by Customs and Border Protection officers, the release added.
