A U.S. representative wants answers after documents reportedly showed thousands of migrant children were sexually abused while in U.S. custody.
Axios reportedly got those documents from the office of Rep. Ted Deutch, which said they were part of the Department of Health and Human Services' response to a House Judiciary Committee request.
The documents reportedly show HHS' Office of Refugee Resettlement received more than 4,500 complaints from unaccompanied minors between October 2014 and July 2018. In the same period, the Department of Justice reportedly received more than 1,300 complaints.
Axios says nearly 200 of the complaints involve alleged abuse by adult staff members.
During a Tuesday hearing on the Trump administration's "zero-tolerance" immigration policy, Deutch said the documents show there were 154 assaults by staff over the last three years. He pointed out that's about one sexual assault per week.
"I am deeply concerned with documents that have been turned over by HHS that report a high number of sexual assaults on unaccompanied children in the custody of the Office of Refugee and Resettlement. Together, these documents detail an environment of systemic sexual assaults by staff on unaccompanied children," Deutch said.
The Trump administration's "zero-tolerance" policy separated thousands of immigrant children from their parents.
