The family of a 16-year-old San Diego resident is claiming her rights were violated last month during a strip search allegedly conducted without her parents’ consent by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at the San Ysidro Port of Entry.

According to her stepfather, Scott Catlin, the teenager was “touched all over her body” and made to “bend over multiple times,” with female CBP officers “shining a flashlight in her vaginal and anal areas.”

During a news conference at the offices of the American Friends Service Committee, Catlin said “they stole her innocence” and that “I want the people who did this held responsible.”

Pedro Rios, director of the committee’s U.S.-Mexico Border Program, said the case is one of about 50 documented by his group involving mistreatment or abuse by law enforcement agencies, primarily by CBP officers.


“When they are allowed to operate with impunity, it allows them to get away with these types of actions, which we find to be extremely egregious in this case,” Rios said.

The family’s attorney, Francisco Javier Aldana, said that any legal actions taken by the family will be determined only after a meeting on Friday with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General.

“They violated her privacy, they violated her constitutional rights against unreasonable searches and seizures,” Aldana said, adding that in case of body searches, “there is a requirement that a parent get notified when it’s a minor, and not a single attempt was made.”

In a written response, CBP stated that privacy laws prevent the agency from speaking about individual cases. “But in general terms, if during the course of our inspection, there are enforcement concerns, CBP officers follow standard protocols to resolve the issue at hand and complete our national security mission.”


Drug trafficking organizations have been known to use minors to carry drugs across the border, attaching drugs to different parts of the carriers’ bodies. Earlier this year, CBP paid a $1 million settlement to family members of a 16-year-old Tijuana teenager who died in 2013 in custody after drinking liquid meth he was carrying in a juice bottle. In that case, family members claim CBP officers at San Ysidro encouraged him to sip the liquid to prove it was juice rather than test the liquid.

During Friday’s news conference, he said that his stepdaughter was carrying nothing more than a box of “Choco Krispis” cereal at the time of her detention. “I understand that we have to have security at the border, but there has to be a better, more dignified way of doing things, especially when we’re dealing with children.”

Catlin said he is a South San Diego resident, a teacher and law school graduate and currently a high school football coach.

He said the incident took place on Sept. 5, a Tuesday, at about 7 p.m. as the teen and two older sisters, ages 18 and 20, were returning from visiting their grandmother in Tijuana. According the his account, all three, who are legal U.S. permanent residents, were at the PedWest entrance of the San Ysidro Port of Entry, when a K9 unit—a dog trained to detect illegal drugs—alerted officers in the general direction of the sisters as they stood with others waiting to cross.


At the inspection booth, the oldest sister was allowed through, but the two younger sisters were pulled over for secondary inspection, according to the family’s account. The middle sister was released after about 45 minutes, and was not strip searched. But the youngest, who was menstruating and wearing a sanitary pad, was subjected to a search by two female agents, and remained in custody for about one-and-a-half hours, Catlin said.

Catlin described the teen as an outgoing, athletic high school junior who loves adventure and is close to a brother who is autistic.

“I call her Sunshine, she’s someone who lights up a room,” he said. “Her light, her smile has been stolen.”

Catlin said he filed a complaint with CBP two days after the incident, but had not spoken publicly about the case until now on advice of his attorney. “There is no justification for how she was treated, no child should have to go through that,” he said.


sandra.dibble@sduniontribune.com

@sandradibble