Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will now have to pay “Jane Doe,” a New Mexico woman, $475,000 to settle a lawsuit filed in December 2013. In the suit, Jane Doe alleged that she was detained at the US-Mexico border and subjected to an illegal cavity search by nearby hospital personnel. Authorities believed she had drugs on her person, but they found nothing after six hours of intimate searches.

This case is separate from, but has remarkable similarities to, a pending case that was filed last month in Arizona by another woman, Ashley Cervantes.

Doe’s attorneys are spread across two activist organizations, the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas and the ACLU of New Mexico. The team previously won a $1.1M settlement on her behalf to settle related claims filed against the University Medical Center of El Paso. Under the terms of the new settlement with the feds, the two ACLU organizations will send advisory letters to hospitals from San Diego to Houston, notifying them of their rights and responsibilities. In addition, hundreds of CBP agents will have to undergo retraining.

“Doctors and law enforcement officers are entrusted with the sacred responsibility of looking after our health and safety, and Ms. Doe’s unspeakable ordeal represents an unforgivable violation of that trust,” Terri Burke, executive director of the ACLU of Texas, said in a Thursday statement. “These atrocities were committed with our money and in our name, and it’s not enough to hold those who committed them to account. We must also ensure that every law enforcement officer and every hospital staff member understands the consequences of so intimately and egregiously violating someone’s rights.”

CBP spokesman Roger Maier confirmed the settlement, but he noted it should “not be taken as an admission of liability or fault."

“CBP has policies, procedures, and training in place to ensure officers and agents treat travelers and those in custody with professionalism and courtesy, while protecting the civil rights, civil liberties, and well-being of every individual with whom we interact, and maintaining the focus of our mission to protect all citizens and visitors to the United States,” he told Ars in a statement.

Six hours of hell

In the 2013 civil complaint of Doe v. El Paso County Hospital et al , the woman is described as a married middle-aged woman from Lovington, New Mexico. She says she routinely traveled to Ciudad Juarez, Mexico—immediately across the border from El Paso, Texas—to visit a close friend.

According to her civil complaint, Doe was finishing such a visit on December 8, 2012. She returned from Juarez, crossing on foot back into El Paso.

Doe was then informed that she was randomly selected for a secondary screening and was escorted to a private area. She was frisked and ordered to squat. Next, she was put in a line and a narcotics-trained dog seemed to give an alert that she may have drugs on her.

Doe was then taken to another private room and ordered to pull down her pants and crouch, which she did. A CBP agent then “examined her anus with a flashlight.” A moment later, she was commanded to lean backwards in this crouched position, where another female agent “parted Ms. Doe’s vulva with her hand, pressed her fingers into Ms. Doe’s vagina, and visually examined her genitalia with a flashlight.”

As the complaint continues:

Ms. Doe did not consent to this strip search nor to having her body touched in so intimate a way by government agents. Ms. Doe was understandably humiliated and she began crying.

Doe was ordered to get dressed again. The CBP then taped the cuffs of her pants to her body and “forcibly transported” her to the University Medical Center in El Paso, where she was given a laxative. After it took effect—and still no drugs were found—Doe was x-rayed.

When that also failed to turn up drugs, she was given a “forced gynecological exam” and had to submit to a CT scan. Six hours later, Doe was handed a “consent form”—she had not given her consent prior to the searches according to the suit. CBP told her that if she signed it, the government would pay for the cost of the exams; otherwise, she would have to foot the bill. Doe refused to sign, and she was eventually billed more than $5,000. She refused to pay that as well.

In the year that elapsed between when the incident happened and when the lawsuit was filed, Doe “has not been able to be intimate with her husband” and “stays at home whenever possible,” according to the suit.

The new letters that were sent out to hospitals explain the lawsuit, include Fourth Amendment guidelines, and provide a stern warning: