Migrant Children Starved, Sexually Assaulted: Investigation
Source: NBC News
Migrant Children Starved, Sexually Assaulted: Investigation
By Garance Burke
As tens of thousands of children fleeing violence in Central America crossed the border in search of safe harbor, overwhelmed U.S. officials weakened child protection policies, placing some young migrants in homes where they were sexually assaulted, starved, or forced to work for little or no pay, an Associated Press investigation has found.
Without enough beds to house the record numbers of young arrivals, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services lowered its safety standards during border surges in the last three years to swiftly move children out of government shelters and into sponsors' homes. The procedures were increasingly relaxed as the number of young migrants rose in response to spiraling gang and drug violence in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, according to emails, agency memos and operations manuals obtained by AP, some under the Freedom of Information Act.
First, the government stopped fingerprinting most adults seeking to claim the children. In April 2014, the agency stopped requiring original copies of birth certificates to prove most sponsors' identities. The next month, it decided not to complete forms that request sponsors' personal and identifying information before sending many of the children to sponsors' homes. Then, it eliminated FBI criminal history checks for many sponsors.
Since the rule changes, the AP has identified more than two dozen children who were placed with sponsors who subjected them to sexual abuse, labor trafficking, or severe abuse and neglect.
Read more: http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/national-international/Migrant-Children-From-Central-America-Were-Abused-in-US-Investigation-366537181.html
yeoman6987
(14,449 posts)Who is running these departments?
jwirr
(39,215 posts)They should have hired more workers. But no that is the last thing that they want to do.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)is the US policy. This doesn't even touch the horrors that await child migrants as they pass through Mexico.
jwirr
(39,215 posts)are fleeing from?
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)But at least they have parents back home.