Immigrant youth separated from their parents have reported thousands of allegations of sexual abuse

Over the past four years, thousands of allegations of sexual abuse affecting unaccompanied immigrant minors in U.S. custody have been reported, per Axios.

Axios obtained documents containing the complaints from the office of Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.) Overall, the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Refugee Resettlement received 4,556 complaints, while the Department of Justice received an additional 1,303 — though Axios reported that it is unclear whether there's an overlap between the two departments.

The majority of the allegations sent to the DOJ were made against other minors, but 178 were waged against adult HHS staff members, including 154 sexual assault allegations.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

CNN reported that during a House hearing on Tuesday concerning the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy, which led to the separation of thousands of migrant children from their parents, Deutch pointed out that the allegations work out to an average of "one sexual assault by HHS staff on unaccompanied minor per week."

Caitlin Oakley, a spokesperson for HHS, said that the department takes any allegation "seriously" and acts "swiftly to investigate and respond."

Per Axios, in many cases the accused staffers were, indeed, "removed from duty and ultimately fired." Read more at Axios.