SEATTLE – Migrants and asylum seekers crossing the Rio Grande have experienced some cases of verbal and physical abuse by U.S. federal authorities near El Paso. That is according to the grassroots organization called the Border Network for Human Rights, one of the leading immigration reform and human rights advocacy organizations in the U.S. The group says it has documented cases in which authorities call immigrants “rats” as well as physical abuse such as chocking migrants with the straps of a backpack.