Lawsuit says 3-year-old faced alleged sexual abuse while held by ORR

Lawsuit alleges abuse during child’s months in federal custody

A 3-year-old immigrant child suffered alleged sexual abuse while in federal immigration custody and placed in foster care after immigration officials separated her from her mother, the child’s family and their attorneys said. The father, a legal permanent resident in the United States, said he waited months for the child’s release through the immigration system before the allegations came to light through the courts.

He told the Associated Press he believed delays in the process prevented a faster reunion. “She was so long in there,” the father said, adding that he believed that if the case moved faster, “nothing like that would have happened.” He spoke on condition of anonymity because identifying his daughter as a victim could cause further harm.

The legal team said federal officials placed the child into the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which manages shelter and foster placements for unaccompanied children and also oversees procedures for release to parents or sponsors. According to the lawsuit described by the attorneys, the child’s account included allegations that an older child staying with her at the foster placement sexually abused her, and that the abuse resulted in bleeding.

Lauren Fisher Flores, a lawyer representing the child, said the child’s alleged abuse was reported to local law enforcement and that the child underwent a forensic exam and interview. Fisher Flores also said children deserve safety while in government care and argued that families should be informed and protected. She told the Associated Press, “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.”

According to the family and their lawsuit, federal Office of Refugee Resettlement officials told the father there had been an “accident” and said the child would be examined, but they did not disclose the full details to him during the custody delay. The lawsuit further said the older child accused of abuse was removed from the foster program after the forensic examination and interview, and that the father was not told the outcome of the examination at the time.

ORR and the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees ORR, were named as defendants in the child’s lawsuit but did not respond to emails seeking comment, the Associated Press reported.

Separations and longer custody times after policy changes

The family’s case is tied to broader changes in release and custody procedures for children placed with ORR. The Associated Press said the Trump administration began targeting detained immigrant children after implementing new rules and procedures last year, a change that attorneys and advocates said contributed to longer detention times.

The report said the child and her mother crossed near El Paso on Sept. 16, and when the mother was charged with making false statements, officials separated the toddler. The Associated Press said that under the administration’s stricter process, requirements imposed on sponsors grew more extensive; advocates said border agents pressured unaccompanied children to self-deport before transferring them to shelters and that Immigration and Customs Enforcement started arresting some sponsors during parts of the release process.

Attorneys said they anticipated that legal and administrative changes would prolong custody. The Associated Press reported that the average custody time for children cared for by ORR rose from 37 days when Trump took office in January 2025 to almost 200 days this February, and that the total number of children in ORR custody fell by about half during that same period.

While legal advocates have filed lawsuits challenging policy changes, they also said they increasingly relied on habeas corpus petitions—emergency lawsuits intended to speed up release—to address ongoing custody delays.

Habeas petition led to release after months of delays

The father’s legal team said ORR stalled again after months of waiting, including by offering no timeline for the child’s release. The report said that after a letter sent to the government in February, attorneys pressed ORR to allow the father to receive appointments for fingerprinting and background checks, a home visit, and a DNA test.

Attorneys then filed a habeas corpus petition in federal court, and two days later, ORR released the child to her father. Fisher Flores said the intervention helped spur government action on the father’s sponsorship application.

Desai said the case represented another instance of family separation and argued that Congress had designed protections around releasing children quickly and safely. Neha Desai, managing director at Children’s Human Rights and Dignity at the National Center for Youth Law, said of the case, “A bipartisan Congress designed protections around the simple principle that children should be released to their family quickly and safely. This administration has been consistently flouting its legal obligations to release children to their families, profoundly jeopardizing children’s health and well-being.”

After reunion, the family described ongoing effects

When the father finally reunited with his daughter, the Associated Press reported that he cried and said the child was also happy to see him. But after five months in detention, he began noticing changes, including nightmares and increased emotional upset, and said the child was “never like that” before.

The pair now live in Chicago with the girl’s grandparents while the case continues through immigration court, the report said.