Retention Memo to CBP for CRCL Investigation Concerning Age Determination and Birth Certificate Verification Procedures

From 2015-2020, CRCL received more than 100 allegations that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) violated the civil rights and civil liberties of unaccompanied minors when determining their ages or verifying the authenticity of their birth certificates. These allegations arose from reported incidents at both U.S. Border Patrol stations and ports of entry. These included similar allegations, such as CBP discarding and destroying birth certificates, pressuring and coercing unaccompanied minors into incorrectly claiming they are adults, and falsifying records of their ages. From these numerous allegations, CRCL chose a sample of 18 that represented the various types of allegations received by CRCL and opened them as complaint investigations.