A San Diego federal judge has ruled that border officers at the San Ysidro Port of Entry falsely imprisoned a 9-year-old U.S. citizen for 34 hours, violating the Fourth Amendment rights of the girl and her teen brother, who was falsely imprisoned for about 14 hours, as the siblings were trying to cross the border to attend school.more than $1.5 million in damages, ruling that U.S.
Curiel made the ruling Friday, three months after he presided over a bench trial in San Diego federal court in a civil case brought by the siblings and their mother, Thelma Medina Navarro. The judge awarded Julia, now in her early teens, $1.1 million. He awarded $250,000 to Medina and $175,000 to the brother, Oscar.
A CBP spokesperson said the agency “takes all complaints seriously and makes a good faith effort to resolve all complaints justly and fairly, including complying fully with orders issued by the federal district courts.” That officer, Willmy Lara, testified that two other officers were present when he interviewed Julia without her brother, the judge wrote. But Curiel found that was not true, writing that no one else was in the room. “The Court finds that Officer Lara violated the CBP policy requiring a witness for interviews of children and otherwise failed to record the interview,” the judge wrote.
From that point on, the CBP officers assumed Julia was actually her cousin and suspected that Oscar might be trying to traffic or smuggle her, according to Curiel’s finding of facts. Officers loaded the siblings into a van with a handcuffed man and transported them to the Admissibility Enforcement Unit, where they ultimately ended up in separate group detention cells.
While Oscar was released that same night after 14 hours of detention, Julia remained in custody for another 20 hours. The Mexican Consulate got involved on the second day, interviewing Julia twice to determine her true identity. Medina and Oscar, meanwhile, went to the media, providing a live interview with Spanish-language Telemundo.