I read something that disturbed me very much this morning. It was a news story about a New Mexican woman who was coming back to the US in December 2013 who was (allegedly) repeatedly strip searched and sexually violated by the Customs and Border Protection authorities and the hospital staff at University Medical Center of El Paso who examined her.
By the way, that’s not how the authorities are casting it—that’s my interpretation of what this woman, who is identity is being kept private—just like a rape victim’s identify is kept out of the media. According to the legal complaint the border authorities and the medical staff at University Medical Center of El Paso thought it was appropriate to:
1. Have government agents strip searched her and made a visual and manual inspection of her genitals and anus.
• No drugs found
2. Then they subjected her to an observed bowel movement
• No drugs found
3. X-rayed her
• No drugs found
4. Then THEY THEN SHACKLED HER TO A TABLE(!) inserted a speculum into her vagina and performed a rectal exam on her
• Still no drugs
5. So they shoved 2 hands in her vagina to keep searching
• Still not satisfied, they did a CT scan
6. Still no drugs
• Wait for it…
7. Even though these searches were all against the will and without her consent, the Medical Center billed her more than $5,000 for her
repeated rapes by their staff. They called the rapes “services.”
This 54-year old woman has not been able to have relations with her husband or go out in public after this traumatic series of sexual assaults.
Here’s the story I saw on Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/06/border-cavity-search_n_4907225.html?utm_hp_ref=tw
And here’s a link to the legal complaint, it’s more detailed than the 7 points above and I warn you, you will be sick to your stomach at how these agents and doctors treated this woman, what they did to her, who watched, how it was not done privately, etc. http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/Doe-v-elpaso.pdf
Oh, and I’m writing about this on International Women’s Day. How fucking lovely.
