Broadly: Woman Subjected to Illegal Cavity Search at Border Gets $475,000 Settlement

Broadly: Woman Subjected to Illegal Cavity Search at Border Gets $475,000 Settlement by Diana Tourjee:

A New Mexico woman known only as Jane Doe has just been awarded a record-breaking settlement by the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) after a three-year legal battle led by the ACLU of Texas. In 2012, Doe was illegally detained at the Cordova Bridge border while passing through El Paso on her way back into the United States from Mexico. Customs officials claimed that their drug-sniffing dog indicated Doe was carrying drugs, and proceeded to make her strip naked, at which point they searched for the imaginary contraband inside of her anus and vagina.

Though no drugs were found, Doe was taken to a nearby hospital, “where over the course of six hours she suffered an observed bowel movement, an X-ray, a speculum exam of her vagina, a bimanual vaginal and rectal exam, and a CT scan,” the ACLU reported in a press release issued earlier today. “These procedures were conducted without Ms. Doe’s consent or a search warrant.”

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