U.S. government documents show thousands of alleged incidents of sexual abuse against unaccompanied minors in custody

 

CNN reports on a deeply troubling story. 

As we know, the Trump administration has greatly ramped up the detention of Central American asylum seekers, including minors, and went so far as to separate children from their parents.  Now, we learn more about the dangers faced by migrant children in detention.

The Department of Health and Human Services received more than 4,500 complaints of sexual abuse against minors from 2014-2018, according to internal agency documents released today by Florida Democratic Rep. Ted Deutch.

The documents reveal that 1,303 complaints were reported to the Justice Department during that same time frame.

 

Deutch addressed the documents during a House hearing on the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy that resulted in thousands of immigrant children being separated from their parents.  He said that the documents "demonstrate over the past three years, there have been 154 staff on unaccompanied minor, let me repeat that, staff on unaccompanied minor allegations of sexual assault."  "This works out on average to one sexual assault by HHS staff on unaccompanied minor per week," he added.

 

Axios first reported on the documents.

 

KJ