Using state public records laws, police reports, and call logs concerning more than 70 of the approximately 100 immigrant youth shelters in the US. There are hundreds of documented allegations of sexual offenses, fights and missing children.
propublica.org/article/immigr…
propublica.org/article/immigr…
“If you’re a predator, it’s a gold mine,” referring to staff at child immigrant detention centers. “You have full access and then you have kids that have already had this history of being victimized.”
The reports show that the allegations of staff abuse and inappropriate relationships arent isolated. The reports reveal dozens of incidents of unwanted groping and indecent exposure among children and teenagers at the facilities.
(These are immigrant children alone in prisons!)
(These are immigrant children alone in prisons!)
While it’s difficult to get a complete count, the police reports show that children go missing or run away from the shelters roughly once a week. The police reports also raise questions about how the largest operator of immigrant shelters, handles such incidents.
In the molestation case involving the 46-yr-old staffer, police obtained edited surveillance footage but later sought a unedited version. However they had taped over the footage. Un another case, police noted they refused to give officers records from an internal investigation.
"When a perpetrator is trying to pick a victim they’re picking somebody that they think is less likely to report the abuse. Children and youth that are coming from outside of the country, that have no legal status here, that don’t speak English,...
...that don’t have access to lawyers or people who can protect them — they already might think they’re not going to be believed.”
A sudden influx of children made things worse: “It’s really hard to imagine how difficult it is to quickly ramp up appropriate care for children. The more people you have to bring in fast and the less experienced your staff, the more challenges there are to maintain standards.”
The employees told police that the assistant program director said he had lost one of women’s statements while another manager told them to “drop it and leave it alone.” The assistant director told police that the company held a sexual harassment class and suspended...
the maintenance supervisor while it investigated, but couldn’t prove or disprove the allegations because the supervisor denied them. When a police detective asked for copies of the employees’ statements, police records say, a lawyer refused to provide them.
The employees said they feared that if the supervisor was “doing this to female employees, who’s to say he’s not doing this or worse to the several hundred female refugees staying at the center.” The man had full access to the building and the minors might be hesitant to speak up
"When inappropriate touching or abuse occurred among residents at the shelter, the staff and police often left it up to minor victims to decide whether to file charges against other children."
Child assault victims in a foreign prison need to take charge of their legal action?!
Child assault victims in a foreign prison need to take charge of their legal action?!
“It wouldn’t be that difficult for kids to run away from these facilities if they really wanted to. But they were expecting to be pretty quickly reunited with a parent or sponsor. That didn’t create a big incentive for them to try to run away.”
Surveillance cameras caught Trujillo entering and exiting M.A.C.’s room alone each time. On his third trip into the boy’s room, Trujillo attempted to lift the child’s boxers and slip his hand in the boy’s underwear, according to trial records.
“I felt uncomfortable over everything that had happened, I knew it was something that shouldn’t be happening in a place like that, and I knew that I needed to say something to someone about that, because it was something that was serious. So I asked to speak to my counselor.”
The “very significant needs” of the children and the staff’s lack of specialized training levels these children vulnerable. With such a mismatch in needs and capacity, “Youre more likely to have kids running away. Youre more likely to have incidents of sexual and physical abuse.”
