Us Custome Has Been Holding My Relative For Over 8 Hours With No Reason Given. Anything I Can Do In A Legal Sense For Reparations?

Location: Brooklyn, NY

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Hello, recently, about a day ago, some family members came to the US for vacation. What was supposed to be an easy pass through the airport has been a pain. My relatives landed at the airport at around 5 PM. When passing through customs, one member got pulled away for no reason at all. They said it would only take 20 minutes. Me and my sister came to pick them up, but we had to wait for that last relative (cousin) to come out of customs. After nearly 3 hours, we went to an office to ask what was going on since we hadn't had any information of what was going on. The lady at the who was helping us said my cousin wasnt with customs any more. Thinking they had let him go, we frantically looked in and out of the airport to see if he was there and asked an officer to check cameras and to call his name through the airport speakers.

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The officer went to check the cameras and with customs and border protection to check if they had let him go. After 30 minutes, the officer came back and said he was still with customs. We asked the officer along side some other lady's working at the desk what was going on and how long it was going to take. No answer was given at all. After nearly 6 hours of waiting, at 12 AM, we went to ask again and to check on him. They told us he was no longer there since CBP was closing for this terminal and pointed us to the next terminal where he would be transferred.

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After arriving at that terminal, we went to ask a CBP officer directly what was going on. He went onto check what was going on, and after coming back, no answer was given. At this point, we have been waiting for over 6 hours. My sister and other family members who came decided to leave home to rest, while I stayed back waiting for my cousin. After over 2 hours more, I decided to go back and ask. I asked the same CBP officer of any updates. Nothing. I asked for a supervisor, the supervisor didnt showed up. I asked if we were going to get any sort of compensation for unnecessary stress or unnecessary/illegal imprisonment, all they said is to get a lawyer after my cousin gets out.

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Is there any sort of legal steps I can take for any compensation or anything of the sort. Im still at the airport and it's nearly 3 AM and nothing yet. I have been waiting here for over 8 hours

Edit: thanks for all the help and information everyone. Unfortunately, I have been unable to get any information on my cousin and his current status from any of the paths that were recommended to me here. Likely is that he is being sent back to DR. Still thanks a lot for the help. I appreciate it a lot. Any extra information is good.

And thanks for getting it through my head that this is what CBP does and no kind of reparations or reimbursement can be gained since this is basically their job. I appreciate the information.

Update: he got sent back to DR. Once again, thank you everyone for the information and the help. I really appreciate the time everyone took to respond to my yell for help.