‘SEVERE’

Two Migrant Kids Separated from Dads at Border Were Sexually Abused in U.S. Custody, Lawsuit Claims

The two fathers were separated from their children for more than two months after they were detained at the border in Arizona in May 2018.

Two migrant children were sexually abused in U.S. custody after they were separated from their fathers at the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona, according to a lawsuit filed on Friday by the Southern Poverty Law Center. About 3,000 migrant children were taken from their parents at the border after the Trump administration announced its zero-tolerance policy, and thousands of those children have said they were sexually abused in American detention centers. Both families in Friday’s lawsuit fled their home country of Guatemala to seek asylum in the U.S., and the fathers separated from their children beginning in May 2018 for more than two months. Herlinda, 5, and Obet, 7, were both abused while in government custody, according to the lawsuit. “The sexual abuse went beyond external touching and was much more severe,” the court documents said about Obet’s experience. Now, the lawsuit alleges, the “children continue to struggle to communicate with their fathers, especially about the separation and abuse they suffered. Further, since being reunited, Obet has said he feels he has no family, and Herlinda is quick to anger and has hit [her father],” according to the documents.