Returning immigrants report beatings by Tijuana police

UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

June 23, 2008

TIJUANA – Nearly 200 illegal immigrants sent back to Mexico from the United States were falsely arrested by Tijuana municipal police who beat or robbed some of them, according to a study that a human rights group released last week.

Victor Clark Alfaro, head of the Binational Center for Human Rights and a longtime observer of Tijuana crime trends, called on the municipal government to rein back the police and respect the rights of the returning immigrants.

Clark, who is also a lecturer at San Diego State University, and a group of students interviewed hundreds of immigrants between August and April. They found 188 of them were arrested for not carrying proper identification and taken before a judge, who many times ordered them jailed for up to 36 hours. Some of those immigrants said police beat or robbed them.