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Edgar Holguin, an assistant federal defender in El Paso, stated that in his experience, this
approach is not consistently followed. Instead, most of those who have been previously
deported are referred for criminal prosecution before being given a reasonable fear
interview. 173 Some of the cases we investigated support this view. Maira Alvarado, the wife
of Joel Reyes-Isais, told Human Rights Watch that she and her husband entered the United
States together after beatings and threats from the police in Ciudad Juarez. When they
were apprehended, Alvarado had just fallen from a bridge and suffered serious injuries—a
broken nose, broken leg, and fractured skull—and was taken to the hospital. She said her
husband told Border Patrol, “We’re running because the police of Juarez are trying to kill
us,” but he was referred for criminal prosecution without a reasonable fear interview. 174
Reyes had been previously removed after a conviction for a drug offense in 2007 and so
spent four months in federal jail awaiting sentencing for illegal reentry before he was
transferred to immigration custody, where he was finally able to request asylum. 175
Advocates elsewhere in the United States have recently reported encountering cases in
which CBP appears to have conducted inadequate screening for fear of persecution during
apprehensions along the southern border. 176
“A lawyer can’t help you with nothing”
Brenda R. (pseudonym), a 45-year-old former long-term resident of Dallas, Texas,
has tried three times to return to the United States because of her fears of staying
in Mexico. Each time, she says, she was criminally prosecuted and given no chance
to apply for asylum.
In April 2012, Brenda’s two adult non-citizen sons were killed in Mexico. They had
grown up in the United States, but one was deported to Mexico and the other had
gone back voluntarily. They were living together in a small town in the state of
173 Human Rights Watch interview with Edgar Holguin, assistant federal defender, El Paso, Texas, September 25, 2012.
174 Human Rights Watch email correspondence with a researcher in the Law Offices of Carlos Spector, May 9 and 10, 2013.
175 Human Rights Watch interview with Maira Alvarado, El Paso, Texas, September 27, 2012; court records for Joel Reyes-Isais,
showing sentence of time-served, four months after the charges were first filed.
176 Email from Katharina Obser, Women’s Refugee Commission, to Human Rights Watch, November 9, 2012; email from
Barbara Hines, University of Texas Law School, Immigration Clinic, to Human Rights Watch, October 3, 2012; Detention Watch
Network listserv emails to Human Rights Watch, September 26 and 27, 2012 (reports from immigration attorneys in New
Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania).
65 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | MAY 2013