NGOs raise major concerns with Scott’s use of illegal warrants and subpoenas to cover-up killings and abuse by border agents under his command (Former U.S. Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott testifies on his nomination to serve as U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner before the Senate Finance Committee in Washington D.C. April 30, 2025. / CBP, Jaime Rodriguez)   SOUTHERN BORDER – As Congress considers unprecedented levels of funding for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), 35 non-governmental organizations issued a letter today urging the Senate Finance Committee to vote against Trump's nominee for CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott, given his demonstrated lack of accountability and integrity in his prior leadership roles at Border Patrol. Continue reading

(U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents patrol an open air detention site (OADS) with migrants in their custody along the U.S.-Mexico border in December 2023. / Southern Border Communities Coalition)   Declarations detail stories of alleged abuse and neglect of people in DHS detention WASHINGTON, D.C. — Human rights and immigration advocate groups late yesterday asked a judge to issue a preliminary injunction to resume operations of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman Office, and Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman, asking the court to immediately reopen the offices tasked with protecting the civil rights of people who interact with immigration enforcement officials.  Continue reading

Move to bypass civil rights protections at Department of Homeland Security violates law and undermines constitutional protections Continue reading

Southern Border - Yesterday, the Southern Border Communities Coalition (SBCC) and the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law (CHRCL) submitted a report to the United Nations Human Rights Council on U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)’s continued human rights abuses at Open Air Detention Sites as part of the United Nations Universal Periodic Review of the United States. Continue reading

Southern Border - Today, the Southern Border Communities Coalition took its fight for dignity and human rights to the U.S. Supreme Court by filing an amicus curiae (“friend of the court”) brief in a major police shooting case, Barnes v. Felix, to hold law enforcement including Customs and Border Protection (CBP), accountable for decades of unchecked killings and abuse. Continue reading

Southern Border - This week, the Southern Border Communities Coalition and the Sierra Club continued the fight to protect their landmark settlement committing the federal government to restore public lands harmed by illegal border wall construction during the Trump Administration. SBCC and Sierra Club filed an appeal to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in General Land Office of Texas v. Biden, an unrelated case brought by Texas and Missouri where the district court ruled to prohibit the federal government from using congressional appropriations to remediate and mitigate damage caused by border wall construction. Continue reading

SOUTHERN BORDER — Today, President Biden announced new executive actions that could keep families together and provide affirmative immigration relief for many undocumented residents married to U.S. citizens through the use of a longstanding immigration authority known as “parole in place”. In the absence of Congress failing to fulfill its duty to fix our immigration system to uphold human rights, this represents the largest expansion of immigration protection for border communities in California, New Mexico, Arizona and Texas since DACA twelve years ago in 2012. Continue reading

Families of border residents slain by border agents and impacted community members decry 100 year anniversary of Border Patrol Southern Border — Today as the U.S. Border Patrol marks its 100 year anniversary, community members decried a century of harm, violence and impunity the agency has imprinted on border communities, as advocates issued a joint letter to President Biden to rein in the largest law enforcement agency in the nation. Today, May 28, is also the same anniversary of the beating and torture of Anastasio Hernández Rojas, who is survived by his wife Maria Puga and children after Border agents left him for dead in 2010 after trying to cross the San Ysidro U.S.-Mexico border. Continue reading

MEDIA ADVISORY Impacted Community Members Call for End of Legacy of Violent & Abusive Border Policing on Border Patrol 100-Year Anniversary Continue reading