US Customs and Border Protection officer allegedly took sisters into ‘closet-like room’, told them to remove their clothes and sexually assaulted them

Two teenage sisters fleeing violence in Guatemala were sexually assaulted by a US Customs and Border Protection officer in Texas after crossing the Mexican border, according to claims filed by the American Civil Liberties Union.

The sisters, aged 17 and 19 at the time of the incident in July 2016, were in a field office in Presidio when an agent took them into a “closet-like room” one at a time, told them to remove their clothes and sexually assaulted them, the ACLU reported on Wednesday.

“We had fled Guatemala for fear, and then this happened to us,” the older sister, now 20, said in a phone call with reporters. In tears, she added: “The purpose and reason why we’re sharing our story today is to prevent this from happening to any women and to ask the agents to have sympathy.”

The complaint comes at a time when Donald Trump has pledged to add 5,000 more border agents to the force to support his anti-immigration agenda.

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The sisters, who have asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation, filed claims with the federal government detailing their experience on the night of 11 July when they got lost on the Presidio, Texas-Ojinaga, Chihuahua border. Out of “desperation”, they approached two CBP officers and asked for help, according to the complaint.

The officers then drove them to a field office where they placed them in a holding cell under the supervision of a third officer who eventually forced each of them into a small room “without [their] consent or authority of law”, the claims said.

The officer took the 19-year-old into the room first and ordered her to remove her clothing even after she asked if she could keep her tank-top on, according to the claim. The officer then allegedly placed his hands under her brassiere and fondled her breasts as she began to cry. He subsequently order her to remove her pants and leggings and “forcefully pulled down her underwear” before “running his hand over her vagina”, the complaint said.

The officer allegedly assaulted the younger sister in a similar manner.

“I never thought he would do the same to my sister,” the older sister, who goes by the pseudonym Clarita, said on Wednesday, speaking in Spanish through a translator. “I thought he had done it to me for being an adult, but not to my sister, a child.”

As the two cried together after the alleged assaults, the officer asked them to “not tell anyone about what happened”, according to the complaint.

“We cried a lot,” Clarita said during the news conference. “The man was very nervous and told us to be quiet … to stop crying.”

The sisters later reported the assault to another officer, who eventually “apologized” to them, according to the claim.

The US Department of Homeland Security’s office of inspector general took over an investigation, and the teenagers provided sworn statements. They were released three days later and were allowed to travel to Fresno, California, where they were meeting their mother.

The ACLU said it has no record that any disciplinary action has been taken in this case.

Both sisters, who had been separated from their mother for 10 years, are in counseling and continue to suffer stress and anxiety today due to the “abuse and humiliation” and “atrocious touching” they experienced, according to the claims, which seek financial damages.

A CBP spokesman, Douglas Mosier, said in an email to the Guardian that the agency can’t comment on pending litigation, adding, “We do not tolerate corruption or abuse within our ranks, and we fully cooperate with any criminal or administrative investigation.”

Please have respect for us. We are human beings and we’re children Clarita

Clarita told reporters she wanted to send a message to the agency: “Just because we are not from here and we are fleeing, to please have respect for us. We are human beings and we’re also children.”

In a blogpost for the ACLU, she added: “We thought we had left a world of violence and oppression, only to realize immigration enforcement officers in the United States appeared to be no different than law enforcement in our home country, abusing the tremendous power and responsibility that comes with their job.”

Mitra Ebadolahi, attorney with the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial counties, said this kind of abuse is common, citing her organization’s complaint in 2014 on behalf of 116 unaccompanied children. That filing with the Department of Homeland Security alleged abuse and mistreatment in border patrol custody, including severe overcrowding, denial of food and medical care and harsh temperatures.

“This case is unfortunately representative of a pattern within Customs and Border Protection of significant abuse of children, including significant sexual abuse,” she said. “It’s not the children who are breaking the law. It was and remains our own federal government.”

Records have shown that Border Patrol agents are rarely disciplined in abuse cases.