MCALLEN, Texas (AP) — For five months, the young father waited for his 3-year-old daughter to cross the U.S.-Mexico border with her mother and end up in federal custody, hoping the delay would allow them to be reunited safely.
It was only when he finally approached the courts that he learned that the girl had been placed in a foster home after immigration officials separated her from her mother and was allegedly sexually abused.
“She was there for a long time,” said her father, a legal permanent resident of the United States. “I just think if they had acted faster, this wouldn’t have happened.” He told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to avoid identifying his daughter as a victim of sexual abuse.
President Donald Trump’s administration began targeting immigrant children, such as the man’s daughter, in detention last year when it implemented new rules and procedures, followed by a sharp increase in detention times. The federal government has stepped up efforts to indefinitely expand family detention with a motion to end a cornerstone policy that ensures the protection of immigrant children in federal custody.
Months after the girl was placed in foster care, efforts to reunite her father stalled after the government told him it couldn’t make an appointment to have his fingerprints taken.
During that time, the girl said she was sexually abused by an older child who lived with her at a foster care center in Harlingen, Texas, according to court documents. A caregiver noticed the child’s underwear was on inside out, the lawsuit states. The girl later told paramedics she had been abused multiple times and was left bleeding. He told The Associated Press in an interview that federal refugee resettlement officials told the father there had been an “accident” and that his daughter would be examined.
“I asked them, ‘What happened? I want to know. I’m her father. I want to know what happened,’ and they just told me they couldn’t give me any more information and it was under investigation,” the father said.
The girl underwent a forensic examination and interview. The older child accused of abuse was removed from the foster care program, although the father was not informed of the outcome, the lawsuit states.
The girl underwent a forensic examination and interviews, the lawsuit states. Lauren Fisher Flores, an attorney representing the girl, said the abuse allegations were reported to local law enforcement. The Associated Press generally does not name people who say they were sexually abused.
“It’s unimaginable that your children are being abused while in government care, not understanding what’s going on or how to protect them, and not even being informed of the abuse,” Fisher-Flores said. “Children deserve to be safe, and they belong to their parents.”
ORR and its parent agency, the Department of Health and Human Services, were named in the children’s lawsuit but did not respond to emails seeking comment.
Trump administration changes release policy
The girl and her mother illegally crossed the border near El Paso on September 16 last year. When her mother was accused of making false statements and separated from them, the child was placed in the custody of ORR, an agency that cares for immigrant children in shelters or foster care settings.
Children in ORR care are released to parents or sponsors who are subject to a strict process that has become more widespread under the Trump administration.
Stricter rules were imposed on the documentation required by sponsors, border agents began pressuring unaccompanied children to deport themselves before transferring them to shelters, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement began arresting some sponsors during the release process.
Legal advocates filed a lawsuit challenging the policy changes, which are expected to result in lengthy detentions.
The average length of custody of children in ORR’s care increased from 37 days in January 2025, when Trump took office, to nearly 200 days in February of this year. During the same period, the total number of children in ORR’s custody fell by about half.
Lawyers now turn to habeas corpus petitions, which function as emergency proceedings to expedite the release of children to parents and sponsors.
Fisher Flores, legal director of the American Bar Association’s ProBar program, said the organization has handled eight habeas corpus petitions this year, representing children who have spent an average of 225 days in federal custody. Before the Trump administration, they had not filed such a petition for children.
Fisher-Flores said the legal intervention helped prompt a federal response to the father’s sponsorship application.
The alleged abuse was not immediately disclosed to the father
After months of delays, lawyers sent a letter to the government in February urging them to allow the father to get an appointment for a fingerprint background check, home visit and DNA testing. Then ORR stalled again, offering no timetable for her expected release.
Attorneys filed a habeas corpus petition in federal court, and two days later, ORR released the girl to her father.
As lawyers prepared for the lawsuit, the father realized the “accident” officials told him involved sexual abuse.
“We are increasingly turning to federal courts to challenge these harmful violations and demand the release of children,” Fisher-Flores said.
During the first Trump administration, the fingerprinting policy was challenged by legal advocates, including the National Youth Law Center. Other nationwide lawsuits oppose recent changes affecting the custody and care of immigrant children.
“This represents another form of family separation,” Neha Desai, general manager of the Children’s Human Rights and Dignity Division at the National Youth Law Center, said of the 3-year-old girl’s case.
“A bipartisan Congress designed protections around a simple principle: children should be released quickly and safely to their families. This administration has consistently ignored its legal obligation to release children to their families, seriously jeopardizing the health and well-being of children,” Desai added.
The father cried when he was finally reunited with his daughter. His daughter was also happy to see him.
But five months into her detention, he began to notice changes: She had nightmares and became easily upset. “She had never been like this” before, her father said.
The pair now live with the girl’s grandparents in Chicago while her case proceeds through immigration court.
