A three-year-old immigrant girl was allegedly sexually abused while in federal custody at a foster home in Texas, according to a lawsuit filed by her family. The girl had been placed there after being separated from her mother at the US-Mexico border.
The father, a legal permanent resident, spent five months trying to secure her release. He said officials from the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) only told him of an ‘accident’ and refused to provide further details. Court documents allege the abuse was carried out by an older child in the same foster home in Harlingen.
Under the Trump administration, new rules implemented in 2025 led to a dramatic increase in detention times for immigrant children. Average custody periods rose from 37 days in January 2025 to nearly 200 days by February. The total number of children in ORR custody fell by half during the same period.
Lauren Fisher Flores, the lawyer representing the girl, said: ‘To have your child abused while in the government's care, to not understand what has happened… it is unimaginable.’ The ORR and its parent agency, the Department of Health and Human Services, have been named in the lawsuit but did not respond to requests for comment.
