The ACLU is representing a New Mexico woman in her fifties who was subjected by federal agents to a two-handed (!)
vaginal and anal examination, an involuntary X-ray and CAT scan, and was forced to defecate in front of strangers.
The woman was suspected of being in possession of drugs, on the basis
of a drug-dog alert at the Juarez/El Paso border-crossing. No drugs were
found. The federal agents -- it's not clear what agency they were with
-- did not obtain a warrant. The doctors at University Medical Center in
El Paso performed the procedures without the victim's consent,
including the CT scan, which subjects people to a high dose of
potentially harmful radiation.
A dog alerted to the woman, and Schaur Ives said federal agents stripped
searched her at the facility, asked her to undress, to spread her
genitalia and to cough. Female agents also allegedly pressed their
fingers into her vagina looking for drugs.
The woman claims they didn't discover anything during the on-site strip
search, so they took her to University Medical Center of El Paso.
"First, medical staff observed her making a bowl movement and no drugs
were found at that point," Schaur Ives said. "They then took an X-ray,
but it did not reveal any contraband. They then did a cavity search and
they probed her vagina and her anus, they described in the medical
records as bi-manual--two handed. Finally, they did a cat scan. Again,
they found nothing."
The ACLU claims the federal agents never secured a search warrant before probing or touching the woman.
"And her medical records indicate that she refused consent," Shaur Ives said.
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