Carlo Allegri/Reuters
Three children from El Salvador who were separated from their parents after entering the U.S. have been sexually abused at shelters where they are being kept in Arizona, Salvadoran officials allege. Liduvina Magarin, the deputy foreign relations minister for El Salvador nationals overseas, said the children are between the ages of 12 and 17 and are still held in U.S. shelters. “May they leave the shelters as soon as possible, because it is there that they are the most vulnerable,” she told journalists Thursday, adding that the Salvadoran government is pushing U.S. authorities to reunite the children with their families immediately. “They are sexual violations, sexual abuses, that is what this is about,” she said. Magarin’s comments came as the Trump administration announced in a court filing Thursday that 497 immigrant children remain in U.S. custody, with hundreds of their parents having already been deported.