Saturday, July 14, 2012

Border Patrol Turns Back US Citizens

Woman fights to assert citizenship
By Madeline Buckley, The Brownsville Herald
June 02, 2012

Though she was born in Weslaco in 1982, Brenda Vazquez swore to a Customs and Border Protection officer that she was born in Mexico and is not a U.S. citizen.

Desperate for the end of what she says was hours of intense questioning at a Brownsville international bridge, she signed a statement denying her citizenship.

A petition filed in federal court last week states that Vazquez made the false statement on Feb. 19 after seven hours of intimidation from a Customs and Border Protection officer. [...]

Read the full article:
http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/hours-140955-customs-vazquez.html

Complaints rise over border-crossing interrogations
Lynn Brezosky, Houston Chronicle
July 9, 2012

MATAMOROS, Mexico - Sitting in a Matamoros restaurant on a recent afternoon, Brenda Vasquez recounted the day she says she was forced to sign away her U.S. citizenship. Even though she lives and works in Mexico, Vasquez says she was born in the Rio Grande Valley and, until February, was allowed to cross the border with her birth certificate, a Social Security card and a Texas ID - all confiscated by federal agents after what she describes as an abusive interrogation that lasted for hours.

Vasquez is suing Customs and Border Protection Port Director Michael Freeman, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and the CBP agent who she says bullied her into signing a false statement and who is also named in a scathing ACLU complaint of similar incidents. [...]

Read the full article:
http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Complaints-rise-over-border-crossing-3691990.php

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