Detained Toddler Allegedly Experienced Months of Sexual Abuse in Federal Custody

In a grim story reported by Associated Press over the weekend, a 3-year-old who spent five months in ORR (Office of Refugee Resettlement) custody says she experienced multiple instances of sexual abuse by an older child in her foster home—the exact kind of situation the ORR was built to avoid. According to the girl’s father, this wouldn’t have happened if the system had “moved faster.” It also wouldn’t have happened if the administration actually cared about reuniting immigrant children with their parents.

The girl and her mother initially arrived in the U.S. via Texas in September when they were both detained for the mom’s alleged “false statements.” They were separated, and the child was sent into one of the ORR’s foster homes.

Aiding and abetting molesters seems to be running theme under the current administration

— TheeBrandi (@TheeBrandi) April 5, 2026

The ORR, an entity of the Department of Health and Human Services, was established by former President Jimmy Carter in the Refugee Act of 1980, as a way of ensuring immigrant children are protected when they escape to the U.S. In less authoritarian times, kids who enter this system are placed in an ORR-approved shelter for a short period while a U.S. “sponsor” (typically someone in their family, or a friend) becomes their designated guardian. But under Trump, the ORR has become yet another arm of the deportation campaign, and the average 37-day period for holding kids has stretched to nearly 200, per February numbers.

Part of these delays includes the administration’s policy that designated guardians must be fingerprinted. This was initiated by the first Trump administration in June 2018, but it caused enormous backlogs, leading to multiple lawsuits, and was ultimately reversed in December that same year. But the ORR reinstated it in February.

In the case of the girl’s father, the government repeatedly told him it couldn’t make an appointment for his fingerprinting, meaning his daughter couldn’t be released to him. His lawyers eventually filed an emergency lawsuit, which was how he found out his daughter was allegedly being sexually abused. She was released to him two days later.

Per court documents, the abuse was discovered by a caregiver who noticed the girl’s underwear was on backwards. When asked about this, the girl said she was abused by one of the older kids multiple times, to the point that it caused her to bleed. During this time, all the father was told was that there’d been an “accident,” according to the AP. Court documents state that the older child was removed from the home. 

“Children deserve safety and they belong with their parents,” the family’s lawyer said. “To have your child abused while in the government’s care, to not understand what has happened or how to protect them, to not even be told about the abuse, it is unimaginable.” 

Per a recent report by the Marshall Project, the number of kids detained by ICE has skyrocketed tenfold since Trump took office, with more than 6,200 detained since January 2025. Also under this administration, ICE and CBP employed at least 30 people with sexual and violent criminal histories in recent years, per a recent report. 

The daughter was ultimately reunited with her dad in March, but he says she’s not been the same since, and she experiences nightmares. “I just think that if they would have moved faster, nothing like that would have happened,” he told the AP. Which, again, true—but in no version of the U.S. should this really be happening at all.

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