WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) joined U.S. Representatives Delia Ramirez (D-IL-03) and Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ-07) to introduce the CBP Guidance on Personal Belongings Act, bicameral legislation to require the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) to develop guidance for the handling of personal property of individuals arrested, restrained, or confined by the Agency.
Senator Welch’s 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.
“Everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect—including people looking to make a better life in America. There’s no reason to take away medications, legal documents, religious items, and family heirlooms that do not pose a safety risk,” said Senator Welch. “Our bill will safeguard the personal belongings of people migrating to the United States, increase accountability for CBP, and improve the treatment people receive while going through the immigration system.”
“Desperate asylum seekers should not have to fear their medication, legal documents, or heirlooms will be taken from them,” said Senator 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.”
“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 Senator 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.”
“For years, civil society organizations and service providers on the ground have brought to light hundreds of cases where CBP personnel have stripped migrants of essential belongings, including life-saving medication, identity documents, and items of religious significance. The issue becomes particularly critical when migrants, especially children, lack their prescribed medications and require emergency care while in custody,” said Congresswoman Ramirez. “I am proud to lead a bicameral effort to improve CBP’s consistency and efficiency in safeguarding and returning migrants’ essentials and prevent unnecessary pain for those who have already survived immense danger and trauma.”
“For years, we’ve seen the devastating impact of CBP’s confiscation and destruction of migrants’ personal belongings—items like medications, important documents, money, and religious items. This bill is a vital step to ensure that CBP is held accountable for protecting the personal property of migrants. The CBP Guidance on Personal Belongings Act will provide the necessary safeguards to protect migrants’ rights by ensuring clear standards and oversight are enshrined into law to prevent this unjust practice from continuing. I am proud to co-lead this legislation and will keep fighting for the dignity and rights of every person, regardless of their immigration status,” said Congressman Grijalva.
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.
Following GAO’s report, Senator Welch joined 31 Members of Congress in sending a letter to CBP elevating these concerns and urging the agency to implement GAO’s recommendations. In response, 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.
In addition to Reps. Ramirez and Grijalva, the CBP Guidance on Personal Belongings Act is cosponsored in the House by Reps. Nydia Velázquez (NY-07), Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC), Yvette Clarke (NY-09), Juan Vargas (CA-52), Daniel Goldman (NY-10), Cori Bush (MO-01), James McGovern (MA-02), Jesús “Chuy” García (IL-04), Lou Correa (CA-46), Robert Menendez (NJ-08), Nanette Barragán (CA-44), Rashida Tlaib (MI-12), Ilhan Omar (MN-05), Robert Garcia (CA-42), Shri Thanedar (MI-13), Darren Soto (FL-09), Adriano Espaillat (NY-13), and Veronica Escobar (TX-16).
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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