DEPORTED to DANGER RIGHTS United States Deportation Policies Expose Salvadorans WATCH to Death and Abuse
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HUMAN DEPORTED TO DANGER RIGHTS United States Deportation Policies Expose Salvadorans WATCH to Death and Abuse Deported to Danger United States Deportation Policies Expose Salvadorans to Death and Abuse Copyright © 2020 Human Rights Watch All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America ISBN: 978-1-6231-38004 Cover design by Rafael Jimenez Human Rights Watch defends the rights of people worldwide. We scrupulously investigate abuses, expose the facts widely, and pressure those with power to respect rights and secure justice. Human Rights Watch is an independent, international organization that works as part of a vibrant movement to uphold human dignity and advance the cause of human rights for all. Human Rights Watch is an international organization with staff in more than 100 countries, and offices in Amsterdam, Beirut, Berlin, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Goma, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Nairobi, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto, Tunis, Washington DC, and Zurich. For more information, please visit our website: http://www.hrw.org FEBRUARY 2020 ISBN: 978-1-6231-38004 Deported to Danger United States Deportation Policies Expose Salvadorans to Death and Abuse Summary ......................................................................................................................... 1 Glossary .......................................................................................................................... 7 Methodology ................................................................................................................. 12 I. Background ................................................................................................................ 19 Human Rights Situation in El Salvador .................................................................................. 19 Gangs ........................................................................................................................... 22 Disappearances, Abductions, and Missing Persons ......................................................... 22 Harassment and Violence Against Women and LGBT Individuals ...................................... 23 US Laws Affecting Salvadoran Asylum Seekers, Refugees, and Other Migrants ........................ 24 II. Deportees Killed ........................................................................................................ 27 Deported Former or Current Gang Members Killed by Gangs ................................................... 28 Deported Former or Current Gang Members Killed by State Actors .......................................... 29 Deportees Killed Without Apparent Gang-Involvement ........................................................... 31 Deported Former Police Officers Killed by Gangs .................................................................... 33 Data on Deportees Killed ...................................................................................................... 35 Killing of Deportees Likely Undercounted .............................................................................. 38 III. Other Harms Faced by Deportees............................................................................... 42 Disappearances ................................................................................................................... 43 Sexual Crimes ...................................................................................................................... 45 Torture, Other Ill-Treatment, or Excessive Use of Force ........................................................... 47 Armed Attacks, Beatings, Extortion, and Death Threats by Gangs ........................................... 48 People Forced into Hiding ..................................................................................................... 50 IV. Particularly Violent Neighborhoods ........................................................................... 57 Specific Neighborhoods, High Levels of Violence................................................................... 57 Society and Authorities Stigmatize Certain Neighborhoods .................................................... 66 Nowhere Else to Go .............................................................................................................. 68 V. State Actors as Perpetrators of Harm ...........................................................................71 Unable or Unwilling to Protect .............................................................................................. 73 Police Killings and Abuse ..................................................................................................... 75 Death Squads and Extermination Groups .............................................................................. 79 VI. Long-Term Residence in the US ................................................................................. 86 Former Long-Term US Residents Easy Targets of Abuse .......................................................... 88 Extortion .............................................................................................................................. 89 Tattoos ................................................................................................................................ 91 VII. US and International Law ......................................................................................... 97 US Failure to Prevent Return to Persecution ........................................................................... 97 The United States Eviscerates the Right to Seek Asylum ....................................................... 102 US Law Fails to Adequately Value Long-Term Connections to US ............................................107 US Law Should Protect People at Risk of Serious Harm Who Do Not Qualify for Asylum .......... 109 Medium and Long-Term Recommendations ................................................................... 112 To the US Congress ............................................................................................................. 112 To Congress and the Executive Branch ................................................................................. 113 To the US Department of Justice ........................................................................................... 114 To the Attorney General of the United States ........................................................................ 114 To the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency .......................................................... 115 To the Government of El Salvador ........................................................................................ 115 Acknowledgements....................................................................................................... 117 Summary The US government has deported people to face abuse and even death in El Salvador. The US is not solely responsible—Salvadoran gangs who prey on deportees and Salvadoran authorities who harm deportees or who do little or nothing to protect them bear direct responsibility—but in many cases the US is putting Salvadorans in harm’s way in circumstances where it knows or should know that harm is likely. Of the estimated 1.2 million Salvadorans living in the United States who are not US citizens, just under one-quarter are lawful permanent residents, with the remaining three- quarters lacking papers or holding a temporary or precarious legal status. While Salvadorans have asylum recognition rates as high as 75 percent in other Central American nations, and 36.5 percent in Mexico, the US recognized just 18.2 percent of Salvadorans as qualifying for asylum from 2014 to 2018. Between 2014-2018, the US and Mexico have deported about 213,000 Salvadorans (102,000 from Mexico and 111,000 from the United States). No government, UN agency, or nongovernmental organization has systematically monitored what happens to deported persons once back in El Salvador. This report begins to fill that gap. It shows that, as asylum and immigration policies tighten in the United States and dire security problems continue in El Salvador, the US is repeatedly violating its obligations to protect Salvadorans from return to serious risk of harm. Some deportees are killed following their return to El Salvador. In researching this report, we identified or investigated 138 cases of Salvadorans killed since 2013 after deportation from the US. We found these cases by combing through press accounts and court files, and by interviewing surviving family members, community members, and officials. There is no official tally, however, and our research suggests that the number of those killed is likely greater. Though much harder to identify because they are almost never reported by the press or to authorities, we also identified or investigated over 70 instances in which deportees were subjected to sexual violence, torture, and other harm, usually at the hands of gangs, or who went missing following their return. 1 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | FEBRUARY 2020 In many of these more than 200 cases, we found a clear link between the killing or harm to the deportee upon return and the reasons they had fled El Salvador in the first place. In other cases, we lacked sufficient evidence to establish such a link. Even the latter cases, however, show the risks to which Salvadorans can be exposed upon return and the importance of US authorities giving them a meaningful