Saturday, August 23, 2014

Over the past few months, there have been a number of reports about the rape of undocumented minors while in the hands of U.S. immigration authorities. In March, we had the story of a rouge Border Patrol agent who raped a fourteen year old girl and subsequently committed suicide. In June, we read about a sixteen-year-old girl who made alleged of sexual assult during her detention as well as a complaint filed by the ACLU to challenge the abuse of minors in immigraiton detention.

This past week, Monica Campbell, for PRI's The World, reported on one young boy's journey from Honduras to the United States, and his sexual assault by a fellow detainee while in a New York residential facility.

The story is particularly horrific because of the minimization and denial by authorities who held this young boy - even in the face of medical evidence documenting his assault.

An HHS spokesperson told Campbell:

"HHS and the Department of Justice are working on a Memorandum of Understanding to make clear the applicable reporting requirements."

Perhaps they should look to the DHS' March regulations on detention standards, which were intended to address the problem of sexual assault in immigration detention facilities.

-KitJ

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/immigration/2014/08/the-rape-of-minors-in-immigration-custody.html