Border Abuses Continue, 2-Year Study Says : Law enforcement: Human rights group says incidents are widespread but have declined 50%. The Border Patrol and immigration control activists say the report is biased.

Immigrant rights advocates unveiled a two-year study Tuesday that alleges continuing abuse of illegal immigrants and U.S. citizens by the Border Patrol and other law enforcement agencies in communities along the nation’s southern border.

Border Patrol officials and immigration control activists immediately criticized the study as being unreliable and biased.

The report by the American Friends Service Committee, a human rights group, called for creation of a civilian review board for the Border Patrol such as those affiliated with some big-city police forces.

But although the study characterized physical and verbal abuse as being widespread, it showed a more than 50% drop in the number of alleged victims since a previous study.

Border Patrol officials said the border has actually become safer because U.S. and Mexican authorities have reduced crime and violence at the San Diego-Tijuana international line--where the Border Patrol makes more than half of its apprehensions of illegal immigrants nationwide.

“We don’t think the American Friends Service Committee has shown itself to be a credible critic of the Border Patrol and the INS,” said Border Patrol spokesman Verne Jervis in Washington. He said the Border Patrol made more than 2 million apprehensions during the period covered by the report.

The battle lines drawn Tuesday were familiar. The American Friends Service Committee--which is affiliated with the Religious Society of Friends, or Quakers--has been an outspoken critic of alleged Border Patrol misconduct for the last decade.

The group’s study of immigration-related law enforcement in five border areas in California, Texas and Florida found 392 people who said they were the victims of abuses--including unjustified shootings, sexual assault and verbal harassment--between May, 1989, and May, 1991, according to Roberto Martinez, director of the committee’s Mexico-U.S. Border Project.

In comparison, a report from May, 1988, to May, 1989, documented abuse claims by 814 victims, Martinez said.

The decrease was partly because a substantial number of abuse cases in the 1989 report involved immigration amnesty applicants who alleged that their temporary residence cards were improperly taken away, activists said. There were no such reported incidents in the most recent study because the amnesty process has advanced to its final stages, they said.

The areas studied in both reports were San Diego, southern Arizona, El Paso, the lower Rio Grande Valley and South Florida; the agencies targeted by allegations also included the U.S. Customs Service and local police departments.

Activists called for improved firearms policies and training for Border Patrol agents, citing a study last year by the Office of the Inspector General that found deficiencies in training of some agents involved in shootings.

They also criticized the deaths of three Mexican citizens who were killed in traffic accidents while being chased by the Border Patrol.

Border Patrol officials said their firearms procedures have been tightened recently and they rejected the notion that the Border Patrol should be held responsible for danger to suspected illegal immigrants or drug smugglers who lead agents on car chases.

“Many times the Border Patrol terminates a chase when there is danger,” said Steve Kean, a Border Patrol spokesman in San Diego. “The smuggler who causes the chase should be held directly responsible.”

The Border Patrol sees no need to create a civilian review commission, something no federal law enforcement agency has done, Kean said. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Office of Inspector General for the Justice Department are responsible for reviewing allegations of misconduct by agents, he said. Local police investigate Border Patrol shooting incidents in their jurisdictions.

The report was also criticized by Dan Stein, director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform in Washington, a group that wants tighter limits on immigration. Stein said the American Friends Service Committee was out of step with public opinion.

BACKGROUND

The organization that sponsored the human rights report is the American Friends Service Committee, which is affiliated with the Religious Society of Friends, or Quakers. The committee operates a Mexico-U.S. Border Program which has advocated immigrant rights and monitored border issues for the past decade. It has offices throughout the nation and is based in Philadelphia.