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In each of the past four years, 1,000 or more immigrant children who arrived at the southern U.S. border without their parents have reported being sexually abused while in government custody, according to federal records released Tuesday.

 from the Department of Health and Human Services was 

 on the Trump administration's policy of separating migrant families.


In a hearing by the House Judiciary Committee, Deutch said the government's 135 migrant shelters are "an unsafe environment."

"Together these documents detail an environment of systemic sexual assault by staff on unaccompanied children," he said.

Administration officials expressed their concern while defending the Office of Refugee Resettlement.

"We share the concern that I think everyone in this room feels, anytime a child is abused in the care of ORR is one time too many," said Jonathan White, the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps commander.


"The vast majority of allegations prove to be unfounded when they are investigated by state law enforcement and federal law enforcement and the state licensure authorities to whom we refer them," 

Children who travel to the U.S. border alone or who arrive with a relative who is not their parent or legal guardian are considered by the government to be unaccompanied minors.

"Some 13,000 so-called unaccompanied migrant children are in the custody of the ORR, Burnett reported. "They stay, on average, for about three months at the shelters before they are released to go live with an adult sponsor, while they await their day in immigration court."

 of sexual abuse of people in its custody in October 2014, the beginning of FY 2015.
The agency has "a zero-tolerance policy for all forms of sexual abuse, sexual harassment, and inappropriate sexual behavior at all care provider that house unaccompanied alien children," according to the policy statement. All care providers are required to report all such allegations to state or local authorities within four hours of learning such information.  Copyright 2019 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Crime, Law and Justice

Social Issues

Richard Gonzales

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Opponents of the Trump administration's family separation policy say migrant children are not safe in government custody. Administration officials say most of the allegations are unproven.

Sexual assault of detained migrant children reported in the thousands since 2015

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