Thousands Of Immigrant Children Say They Have Been Sexually Abused While In US Custody

Andres Leighton, AP

Over the past four years, 5,859 allegations of sexual abuse involving unaccompanied immigrant children in US custody have been reported.

There have been nearly 6,000 reports of sexual abuse involving unaccompanied immigrant children while in the custody of the United States government in the last four years, according to documents made public Tuesday.

The documents from the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) were released by Rep. Ted Deutch, a Florida Democrat, during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on the thousands of family separations that resulted from the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy enacted last year.

Over the past four years, 4,556 allegations of sexual abuse were reported to HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), and 1,303 were made to the Justice Department, the documents show.

View the complete February 27 article by Adolfo Flores on the Buzzfeed News website here.