A father in Chicago is seeking justice after his 3-year-old daughter allegedly endured sexual abuse while spending five months in federal immigration custody, according to a new lawsuit.
The legal permanent U.S. resident waited desperately for his toddler’s release after she and her mother crossed the border near El Paso in September. Only after turning to the courts did he discover the horrific truth about what happened to his daughter in a Texas foster home.
“She was so long in there,” the father told reporters, speaking anonymously to protect his daughter’s identity. “I just think that if they would have moved faster, nothing like that would have happened.”
The case highlights how new Trump administration policies have dramatically extended detention periods for immigrant children. Average custody times have skyrocketed from 37 days when Trump took office to nearly 200 days by February.
Immigration officials separated the mother and daughter after the mother faced charges for false statements. The child was then placed with the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which oversees care for immigrant minors in shelters and foster homes.
For months, the father’s reunion efforts hit roadblock after roadblock as officials claimed they couldn’t schedule his fingerprinting appointment.
During this extended separation, court records reveal the girl reported being sexually abused multiple times by an older child in the Harlingen, Texas foster home. A caregiver discovered the girl’s underwear was backwards and noticed bleeding, prompting the child to disclose the repeated abuse.
Federal officials only told the father there had been an “accident” requiring medical examination.
“I asked them, ‘What happened? I want to know. I’m her father. I want to know what’s going on,’ and they just told me that they couldn’t give me more information, that it was under investigation,” he recalled.
The girl underwent forensic examination and interviews. While the father wasn’t informed of results, the accused older child was removed from the foster program. Local law enforcement received reports of the alleged abuse.
“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,” said Lauren Fisher Flores, the girl’s attorney. “Children deserve safety and they belong with their parents.”
The lawsuit names the Office of Refugee Resettlement and the Department of Health and Human Services, neither of which responded to requests for comment.
New Trump administration rules have created additional barriers for sponsors seeking to retrieve children. Enhanced documentation requirements, pressure on unaccompanied minors to self-deport, and ICE arrests of sponsors during the release process have all contributed to longer separations.
Legal advocates have increasingly filed emergency habeas corpus petitions to force quicker releases. Fisher Flores, who directs the American Bar Association’s ProBar project, said her organization has handled eight such emergency cases this year for children held an average of 225 days—a type of petition they never needed before this administration.
Legal intervention finally broke the logjam in February, prompting officials to schedule the father’s fingerprinting, home visit, and DNA testing. But even then, officials provided no release timeline.
Only after attorneys filed the emergency court petition did officials release the girl two days later. It was during lawsuit preparation that the father learned the “accident” was actually alleged sexual abuse.
“Increasingly, we have to turn to the federal courts to challenge these harmful legal violations and demand that children be released,” Fisher Flores explained.
Neha Desai from the National Center for Youth Law called the case “yet another version of family separation.”
“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,” Desai stated.
When father and daughter finally reunited, both cried with joy. However, the five-month separation left lasting impacts. The father noticed his daughter now suffers nightmares and becomes easily upset—behaviors she never displayed before.
The family currently lives in Chicago with the girl’s grandparents while navigating immigration court proceedings.
