A lawsuit alleges a 3-year-old migrant child was sexually assaulted while in federal custody at a foster care center in the Rio Grande Valley, the Associated Press reports.
According to the report, the toddler was taken into federal custody shortly after she and her mother illegally crossed the border near El Paso in September. The mother was charged with making false statements, while the child was separated and put into the care of the Federal Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), according to the AP.
While under the ORR’s watch in a foster home in Harlingen, the 3-year-old was sexually assaulted by an older child, court documents obtained by the AP allege.
A caregiver at the foster care center noticed the toddler’s underwear was on backward, and the girl told the caregiver that she was abused multiple times and that the abuse caused bleeding, the AP wrote, citing the petition.
The alleged abuse only came to light after the girl’s father — a legal permanent resident in the U.S. — was made aware after filing a habeas petition in an attempt to get the feds to release the girl into his custody.
After five months in custody, the girl was released to her father in Chicago while her case works its way through the courts. However, the father told the AP that his daughter now experiences nightmares and gets upset easily.
“She was never like that before,” the father told the news outlet.
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