> The complaints listed include numerous accounts of mistreatment, excessive force, and due process violations. They also include an alleged miscarriage by a Sa

> The complaints listed include numerous accounts of mistreatment, excessive force, and due process violations. They also include an alleged miscarriage by a Salvadoran woman experiencing a high risk pregnancy (see row 7 of the document), a detainee death—its cause not explained—aboard a deportation flight to Honduras (row 20), and a suicide in an Egyptian airport holding area by a deportee en route to Eritrea (row 76). None of this is torture, it's deplorable for sure, but it's not torture. > "For the purposes of this Convention, the term “torture” means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions." From "Definition of Torture Under 18 U.S.C. §§ 2340–2340A" The last sentence is the most important part, but the whole thing is relevant. Torture implies: - That a public official is consenting to the infliction of pain and suffering - The act is done to obtain information or a confession - The act is done outside of lawful sanction So no, none of the complaints "could fall under the definition of torture". Words with legal meaning such as torture are often thrown around to get an emotional response, but it detracts from the horror that is actual torture. Waterboarding a 16 years old Afghan kid on expectation that is working with the Talibans is torture. Using force in the context of deportation is not torture.