LIVES IN DANGER

Report: 60+ Immigrants Killed After Being Deported, Despite Warnings to U.S. Officials

Tracked by Columbia researchers, during Obama and Trump administrations.

In a shocking report in The New Yorker published Monday, students at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism have identified more than 60 instances in which undocumented immigrants who were deported from the U.S. were killed shortly after returning to their home countries. The team based its numbers on interviews with more than 200 legal-aid groups, shelters, NGOs, families, and mortuaries across Central America— the U.S. government doesn’t track such records—and spanned the Obama and Trump administrations. Dozens of living deportees who were tracked down described widespread violence and living in fear. Further, more than a dozen women seeking asylum told the Columbia team that U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents did not ask them the required questions about the threat facing them at home, ignored rights of due process, or were mocked or sexually threatened after protesting.