ACLU suit says anal probes ordered after traffic stop

A southern New Mexico man who was pulled over in January for not making a complete stop was taken to two hospitals and forced to have anal probes, three enemas, two body X-rays and a colonoscopy because police thought he was hiding drugs, according to a federal lawsuit. In El Paso, a woman crossing the border in December was stripped-searched, vaginally probed then taken to the hospital for more invasive tests, a forced bowel movement, X-rays and scans, the American Civil Liberties Union said.

No drugs were found in either of the cases, and both people are now being billed for thousands of dollars by the hospitals, according to attorneys who said the cases raise serious question about law enforcement practices along the border.

"It's terrifying," said Laura Schauer Ives, an attorney with the ACLU in Albuquerque. "I think law enforcement has been emboldened, particularly when it comes to drug interdiction. It's kind of anything goes. You couple that with drug interdiction at the border, and you have a recipe for serious civil liberties violations."

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of David Eckert against police and sheriff's officials in Deming and Hidalgo County, which borders Mexico, alleges local police sought a search warrant for Eckert because they thought he appeared to be clenching his buttocks when he got out of his car Jan. 2. 

According to the lawsuit, Hildalgo County sheriff's deputies officers told the Deming police officers Eckert was known in the area for carrying drugs inside his body. Police also brought in a drug-sniffing dog, which detected something in the driver's seat.

The Deming police chief did not immediately respond to a call for comment Wednesday, but in their response to the lawsuit, the officers said they were lawfully carrying out their duties.

In a separate case, Schauer Ives said she is preparing to file a lawsuit against the Border Patrol on behalf of a New Mexico woman who was subjected to similar treatment after crossing from Mexico into El Paso in December. She declined to name the woman because her client "considers it a sexual assault."

The biggest difference in the cases, she said, is the Border Patrol had no search warrant when it took her client to the hospital in El Paso.

A spokesman for the Border Patrol in El Paso did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the case or on its policies for conducting such searches.

In the Deming case, the lawsuit details a host of violations of Eckert's rights, including his being denied the right to make a phone call from the police station and the fact that the search warrant that was filed to search his body was valid only in Luna County but he was taken to a different county after a doctor at the local hospital refused to do the searches, citing ethical violations.

Meanwhile Border Patrol agents will be allowed to continue using deadly force against rock-throwers, the chief of the agency said Tuesday, despite the recommendation of a government-commissioned review to end the practice.

Under current policy, agents can use deadly force if they have a reasonable belief that their lives or the lives of others are in danger.

The Police Executive Research Forum, a nonprofit group that advises law enforcement agencies, recommended that the Border Patrol and its parent agency, Customs and Border Protection, stop the use of deadly force against rock throwers and assailants in vehicles, Border Patrol Chief Mike Fisher said.

CBP rejected both recommendations, which were part of a broader internal review of the agency's use-of-force policies and practices that began last year. The measures were not included in a revised policy announced on Sept. 25 that calls for more training and better record-keeping.

The internal review began last year after 16 members of Congress raised concern about the May 2010 killing of Anastasio Hernandez, an unarmed Mexican who died from stun gun wounds at San Diego's San Ysidro port of entry. Authorities have said he was being combative while being returned to Mexico. The Justice Department is investigating that killing.

Hernandez was one of 20 people killed by CBP officials since 2010, including eight who died in rock-throwing incidents with Border Patrol agents, according to the ACLU.

The Associated Press