The Trump administration's immigration policies appear to violate the due process and civil rights of migrants and have created an unnecessary crisis at the southern border, a government agency said in a scathing report released Thursday.

The report, written by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, raises grave concerns about the Trump administration's asylum policies, detention practices and previously widespread use of family separation. It echoes and references a number of issues raised in other government watchdog reports and media accounts.

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"As confirmed by media reports, government investigations, eyewitness accounts, and public testimony received by the Commission, the Trump Administration has implemented immigration policies that appear to violate constitutional due process rights and basic standards of medical and mental health care, and seemingly target migrants based on demographics including national origin, language status, and gender," the report says. "These new policies have resulted in the separation of family units, lasting trauma and heartache, and shocking detention conditions for both children and adults."

The commission, which was created by the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and has been reauthorized several times by Congress, is a bipartisan fact-finding agency aimed at informing national civil rights policy. The eight-member commission consists of four Democrats, three independents and one Republican. The body most recently addressed civil rights concerns connected to immigration detention in 2015 and last year decided to update that investigation in the wake of public reports of family separations at the border.

Vice Chairwoman Patricia Timmons-Goodson says the panel originally sought to base the report on data obtained from the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services, but neither agency responded to the commission's requests for information and documents. The commission instead relied on public testimony, media reports, government reports, legal documents and expert opinion.

The result – an extensive document that spans over 200 pages and considers a number of immigration policies and procedures – is accompanied by a letter to President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The report examines how current immigration policies have been implemented amid Trump's derogatory characterizations of migrants and can be seen as an extension of a broader U.S. history of discrimination against immigrants of color from non-European countries.

DHS and HHS failed to implement recommendations issued by the commission in 2015 concerning troubling conditions at the border, the report found. The commission also lent particular focus to the Trump administration's 2018 "zero tolerance" policy that resulted in the separation of thousands of migrant children and their parents.

That policy led to "widespread, long-term, and perhaps irreversible physical, mental and emotional childhood trauma" for migrant children separated from their parents, the report found, based on evidence that included statements from the American Psychiatric Association.

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The findings mirror those of a September report by the HHS Office of the Inspector General, which featured the fact that migrant children experienced severe trauma as a result of family separations.

"As a nation, as we deal with the very complicated and complex issue that is immigration, we cannot and should not lose sight of our country's history and its role in the world," Timmons-Goodson tells U.S. News.

The commission's report examines the treatment of migrants in detention facilities, finding that conditions are unsanitary and particularly dangerous for LBGT migrants. It follows a document released by the Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General earlier this year that detailed overcrowded and substandard immigration detention conditions and prompted public outcry.

The commission's report also faults several new Trump administration asylum policies that it says violate migrants' rights and result in migrants attempting more dangerous border crossings.

Homeland Security declined to comment on the report ahead of its publication.

While the commission has no enforcement mechanism of its own, its recommendations often result in congressional legislation. Recommendations to remedy the issues raised in the current report include increased transparency and oversight at immigration detention facilities. The report also urges Congress to pass legislation ending family separations, defining acceptable conditions at detention facilities and allocating more funding to reduce the immigration court case backlog.

The findings weren't embraced by all members of the commission, four of whom are appointed to staggered, six-year terms by the president and two each by the Senate and House.

Two commissioners wrote dissenting opinions that are included at the end of the document. Peter Kirasnow, the lone Republican, wrote, "No one should take this report seriously." Kirasnow objected to both the findings and the process by which the report was researched.