McALLEN, Texas (AP) 鈥� For five months, the young father waited for his 3-year-old daughter鈥檚 release from federal custody after she crossed the with her mother, hoping through delays for their safe reunion.
Only when he turned to the courts as a last resort did he learn that the girl had suffered alleged sexual abuse at the foster home where she鈥檇 been placed after immigration officials .
鈥淪he was so long in there,鈥� said her father, who is a legal permanent resident in the United States. 鈥淚 just think that if they would have moved faster, nothing like that would have happened.鈥� He spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to prevent identifying his daughter as a victim of sexual abuse.
President Donald Trump鈥檚 administration began targeting detained immigrant children, like the man鈥檚 daughter, last year when it implemented , which were immediately followed by a dramatic jump in detention times. The federal government intensified efforts to expand family detention indefinitely by motioning to ensuring the protection of immigrant children in federal custody.
For months after the girl was placed in foster care, her father鈥檚 attempts to be reunited stalled as the government told him it couldn’t make an appointment to take his fingerprints.
During that time, according to court documents, the girl said she was sexually abused by an older child staying with her in foster care in Harlingen, Texas. A caregiver noticed the child鈥檚 underwear was on backward, according to the lawsuit. The girl then told the caregiver she was abused multiple times and it caused bleeding. Federal Office of Refugee Resettlement officials told the father that there had been an 鈥渁ccident鈥� and his daughter would be examined, he told the AP in an interview.
鈥淚 asked them, 鈥榃hat happened? I want to know. I鈥檓 her father. I want to know what鈥檚 going on,鈥� and they just told me that they couldn鈥檛 give me more information, that it was under investigation,” the father said.
The girl underwent a forensic exam and interview. Although the father wasn’t told of the outcome, the older child accused of the abuse was removed from that foster program, according to the lawsuit.
The girl was forensically examined and interviewed, according to the lawsuit. The abuse allegations were reported to local law enforcement, said Lauren Fisher Flores, the lawyer representing the girl. The Associated Press does not typically name people who have said they were sexually abused.
鈥淭o have your child abused while in the government鈥檚 care, to not understand what has happened or how to protect them, to not even be told about the abuse, it is unimaginable,鈥� Fisher Flores said. 鈥淐hildren deserve safety and they belong with their parents.鈥�
The ORR and its parent agency, the , were named in the child’s lawsuit but did not respond to emails seeking comment.
Trump administration changes release policies
The girl and her mother illegally crossed the border near on Sept. 16 of last year. When her mother was charged with making false statements and they were separated, the toddler was sent to the custody of the ORR, which cares for immigrant children in shelter or foster settings.
Children in ORR’s care are released to parents or sponsors who submit to a rigorous process that has grown more extensive under the Trump administration.
were imposed on documentation required for sponsors, border agents started pressuring before transferring them to shelters and Immigration and Customs Enforcement started in the middle of the release process.
Legal advocates filed lawsuits challenging the policy changes, anticipating that they would result in prolonged detention.
Average custody times for children cared for by ORR grew from 37 days when Trump took office in January 2025 to almost 200 days this February. The total number of children in ORR custody fell by about half during the same time period.
Attorneys are now turning to habeas petitions, which function as emergency lawsuits, to expedite the release of children to their parents and sponsors.
Fisher Flores, legal director of the American Bar Association鈥檚 ProBar project, said that this year the organization has worked on eight habeas corpus petitions representing children who have been held in federal custody for an average of 225 days. They had not filed these kinds of petitions for children before the start of this Trump administration.
Fisher Flores said that legal intervention helped prompt the federal government to respond to the father鈥檚 sponsorship application.
Alleged abuse wasn’t immediately disclosed to the father
After the monthslong delay, attorneys sent the government a letter in February and prompted them to allow the father to receive appointments for a fingerprinting background check, a home visit and a DNA test. Then ORR stalled again, offering no timeline on her expected release.
Attorneys filed the habeas petition in federal court and two days later, ORR released the girl to her father.
It was while the attorneys prepared the lawsuit that the father realized that the 鈥渁ccident鈥� officials had told him about was alleged sexual abuse.
鈥淚ncreasingly, we have to turn to the federal courts to challenge these harmful legal violations and demand that children be released,鈥� Fisher Flores said.
The fingerprinting policy was challenged during the first Trump administration by legal advocates including the National Center for Youth Law. Other nationwide lawsuits are opposing more recent changes affecting the custody and .
鈥淭his represents yet another version of family separation,鈥� Neha Desai, managing director at Children鈥檚 Human Rights and Dignity at the National Center for Youth Law, said of the 3-year-old girl鈥檚 case.
鈥淎 bipartisan Congress designed protections around the simple principle that children should be released to their family quickly and safely. This administration has been consistently flouting its legal obligations to release children to their families, profoundly jeopardizing children鈥檚 health and well-being,鈥� Desai added.
When the father finally reunited with his daughter, he cried. His daughter was happy to see him, too.
But after her five months in detention, he started noticing changes: She had nightmares and was easily upset. 鈥淪he was never like that鈥� before, her father said.
The pair now live in Chicago with the girl’s grandparents while her case moves through the immigration court.
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