Members of Congress Call on DHS to Investigate Sexual Assault in Detention

Immigration advocates joined with congressional representatives to bring attention to the rampant issue of sexual assault in immigrant detention centers. In December, Newsweek reported that 71 members of congress sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security officials to condemn the agency’s failure to investigate claims of assault in detention.

The congressional sign-on letter named several cases of sexual abuse in detention, including the three women who came forward from Hutto Detention Facility in Taylor, Texas.

The national organization Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement (CIVIC) filed a class-action civil rights complaint on April 11 for the Homeland Security’s refusal to disclose records or investigate reports of sexual abuse. “According to CIVIC, Homeland Security received a total of 33,126 complaints of sexual and/or physical abuse from January 2010 to July 2016,” Newsweek reported. Less than one percent of those reports have been investigated, and 75 percent were filed against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CPB) employees.

While ICE responded to claim that all reports are “investigated thoroughly,” the agency has not responded to CIVIC’s complaint. It also has filed a request with the National Archives and Record Administration to destroy its files of scandals and abuse, including reports of sexual assault, deaths of detainees in custody, and solitary confinement.