Duckworth, Durbin Join Introduction of Bicameral Legislation to Expand Protections for Migrants' Essential Personal Belongings
[SPRINGFIELD, IL] – U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, joined U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-VT) and U.S. Representatives Delia Ramirez (D-IL-03) and Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ-07) in introducing the CBP Guidance on Personal Belongings Act, bicameral legislation to require the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to develop guidance for the handling of personal property of individuals arrested, restrained, or confined by the Agency.
The legislation would expand protections for all individuals traveling through CBP custody to ensure they can retain and retrieve their essential personal belongings if confiscated. The bill would also help to ensure that individuals can maintain access to their medications unless CBP officials have identified a specific safety concern or provided an equivalent replacement medication. The bill comes after several nongovernmental organizations identified hundreds of instances where CBP officials unduly confiscated and discarded migrants’ essential belongings, including legal documents, medications, and religious items.
“It shouldn’t be too much to ask that individuals crossing the border are able to do so without fear that critically necessary items like prescription medications aren’t ripped away from them in the process,” said Duckworth. “I’m proud to help introduce this bill that would expand protections for those traveling through CBP checkpoints to help guarantee that these folks can retain—or, if confiscated, retrieve—personal items like medicine, family heirlooms, religious items and legal documents, thereby better ensuring that those coming into our country legally are treated with the respect and dignity that every human being deserves.”
“Desperate asylum seekers should not have to fear their medication, legal documents, or heirlooms will be taken from them,” said Durbin. “The CBP Guidance on Personal Belongings Act will ensure that those entering the country can keep their essential personal items as they navigate our immigration system.”
A new report published earlier this year detailed the pattern of CBP agents confiscating and discarding migrants’ personal belongings—including one troubling case in which a migrant was forced to throw away the ashes of their father. In April 2024, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report confirming repeated instances of unreasonable confiscation and discard of migrants’ essential belongings and recommended that CBP publish clarifying guidance to address the situation.
CBP issued a new directive in August 2024 requiring its personnel to improve the handling of migrants’ personal belongings. The CBP Guidance on Personal Belongings Act would make CBP’s August 2024 directive permanent and expand on the directive by providing individuals released from CBP custody with written instructions to obtain confiscated belongings and establishing a monitoring regime to ensure personnel compliance.
The CBP Guidance on Personal Belongings Act is endorsed by the American Civil Liberties Union, Church World Service, Hindus for Human Rights, the Sikh Coalition, and Protect AZ Health.
Learn more about the CBP Guidance on Personal Belongings Act.
Read the full text of the bill.
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