Texas Border Business
(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it received 41 pages of documents from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) which list 33 separate incidences of alleged sexual abuse in a one month time period.
Judicial Watch forced the release of the documents through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed against Health and Human Services for:
All summaries from individual case files of reports of physical and/or sexual abuse or assault of Unaccompanied Alien Children under the care of HHS, its sub-agencies, and or VOLAGs [voluntary agency], contractors, grantees, and sub-grantees, to include all segregable, non-exempt information.
Records reflecting aggregated data of physical and/or sexual abuse and assault of UACs under the care of HHS, its sub-agencies, and or VOLAGs, contractors, grantees, and sub-grantees.
The records include a spreadsheet of data from the HHS Office of Refugee Resettlement and lists 33 “sexual abuse allegations” involving “unaccompanied children” (UAC) for the time period of January 21, 2021, to February 26, 2021. These incidents seemed to be tied to “voluntary agencies” (VOLAGs), which are contractors for the federal government. Ten of the allegations of sexual abuse were made against staff and “non-staff” members. Twenty-one incidents of children sexually assaulting other children while in government contracted care facilities were reported.
No details were provided as to who the alleged attacker or victims were other than that they were UACs. Additionally, no incident reports were provided by HHS.
No. | Event ID | SA Type of Incident | SA Type of Allegation | Program Name
1 290249 Sexual Abuse Staff and UAC Friends of Youth McEachern
2 290519 Sexual Abuse Staff and UAC BCFS San Antonio Staff Secure
3 290969 Sexual Abuse UAC and Other Bethany Christian Services TFC Michigan
4 291649 Sexual Abuse UAC and UAC Lincoln Hall Boys Haven
5 292060 Sexual Abuse Staff and UAC Mercy First RTC
6 292284 Sexual Abuse UAC and UAC Abbott House TFC
7 292365 Sexual Abuse Non-Staff Adult and UAC Bethany LIRS
8 294303 Sexual Abuse Non-Staff Adult and UAC Cayuga Centers
9 294669 Sexual Abuse UAC and UAC Sunny Glen Childrens Home New Day Resiliency Center
10 295225 Sexual Abuse UAC and UAC Sunny Glen Childrens Home New Day Resiliency Center
11 296007 Sexual Abuse UC and UC Southwest Key Casa Padre
12 296169 Sexual Abuse UC and UC Sunny Glen Childrens Home New Day Resiliency Center
13 296641 Sexual Abuse UC and UC Southwest Key Casa Padre
14 296810 Sexual Abuse UC and UC Southwest Key El Presidente
15 297632 Sexual Abuse UC and UC Southwest Key Casa Padre
16 298189 Sexual Abuse UC and UC Heartland Inti Childrens RC
17 298428 Sexual Abuse UC and UC Leake and Watts
18 298597 Sexual Abuse UC and UC Sunny Glen Childrens Home New Day Resiliency Center
19 298743 Sexual Abuse UC and UC CHS Stanford House
20 298928 Sexual Abuse UC and UC His House
21 299067 Sexual Abuse UC and UC Children First Residential Care TX Sunnyside
22 299640 Sexual Abuse Non-Staff Adult and UC Southwest Key Rio Grande
23 299761 Sexual Abuse UC and UC Mercy First RTC
24 300102 Sexual Abuse UC and UC Friends of Youth Colin Ferguson
25 300290 Sexual Abuse UC and UC Sunny Glen Childrens Home New Day Resiliency Center
26 300467 Sexual Abuse Non-Staff Adult and UC Southwest Key El Presidente
27 300532 Sexual Abuse UC and UC BCFS Raymondville
28 300650 Sexual Abuse UC and UC Southwest Key Cas a Houston
29 300706 Sexual Abuse Non-Staff Adult and UC Southwest Key Casa Padre
30 300804 Sexual Abuse UC and UC Children’s Home of Poughkeepsie- Nuevas Alas Program
31 300848 Sexual Abuse UC and Other SWK Processing Center
32 301043 Sexual Abuse Non-Staff Adult and UC Southwest Key Antigua
33 301253 Sexual Abuse Staff and UC Cayuga Centers L TFC
On February 22, 2021, at the BCFS (Baptist Children and Family Services) shelter in Baytown, Texas, a UAC reported that another UAC, a 17-year-old boy from Guatemala, had been punched with a closed fist in his ribcage by his roommate while the victim was lying down. The victim of the alleged attack did not want to discuss it with shelter officials. The report notes “Minor was moved to another room to ensure other minor’s safety.” The follow up questions in the report: “Was the incident investigated?”; was it “Reported to CPS?”; and was it “Reported to Local Law Enforcement?” were all answered “No.”
“These documents show that not only are there shocking reports of sexual abuse occurring in shelters for unaccompanied children, but that there is violence amongst the UACs themselves,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “It is no surprise that Biden administration’s enabling of human trafficking has resulted in violence and the abuse of children.”
On April 7, 2021, Fox News reported: “Gov. Greg Abbott demanded that the White House close a San Antonio facility housing migrant children Wednesday following allegations that children there were being sexually assaulted.” Additionally, “The governor said that separate complaints were sent to the Department of Health and Human Services and the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services Wednesday, alleging four different kinds of child abuse.”
It was recently confirmed that the Biden administration just this year alone “lost contact with thousands” of unaccompanied illegal immigrant children who had been released from federal custody.
