Probing Controversy Spreads: Woman to File Lawsuit Over What She Says Amounts to 'Sexual Assault' With No Warrant

On the heels of the shocking anal probing controversy in New Mexico, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has revealed that a New Mexico woman was allegedly stripped-searched, vaginally probed and then taken to a hospital for more invasive examinations after crossing into El Paso, Texas, from Mexico in December.

shutterstock.com

ACLU attorney Laura Schauer Ives told the Associated Press that she is preparing to file a lawsuit against the U.S. Border Patrol on behalf of the woman. The attorney declined to identify the woman because her client considers what she went through "sexual assault."

The biggest difference between this case and the anal probing cases in New Mexico, she said, is the Border Patrol had no search warrant when it took her client to the hospital in El Paso. No drugs were ever found on the woman.

"It's terrifying," Schauer Ives said. "I think law enforcement has been emboldened, particularly where it comes to drug interdiction. It's kind of anything goes. You couple that with drug interdiction at the border and you have a recipe for serious civil liberties violations."

After being stripped and vaginally probed, the woman was allegedly subjected to X-rays, scans and a forced bowel movement. Though the woman has been identified as a "New Mexico woman," it wasn't 100 percent clear from the report whether she crossed the border legally or if she is an American citizen.

A spokesman for the Border Patrol in El Paso did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the case or on its policies for conducting such searches.

As previously reported by TheBlaze, David Eckert has filed a lawsuit against police, sheriff's officials and a hospital in New Mexico after he was pulled over for not making a complete stop at a stop sign and was taken to two hospitals and forced to have anal probes, three enemas, two body X-rays and a colonoscopy because police thought he was hiding drugs in his anal cavity.

A different New Mexico man, Timothy Young, was pulled over for allegedly turning without using his blinker. Police obtained a warrant and took him to the same hospital as Eckert, where he was forced to undergo an X-ray and an anal exam. He is also filing a federal lawsuit, his attorney, Shannon Kennedy said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

–

[related]