3-year-old immigrant was sexually abused in federal custody, lawsuit alleges

Immigration3-year-old immigrant was sexually abused in federal custody, lawsuit allegesThe girl was separated from her mother at the border and kept in foster care for months even though her father, a legal permanent resident, had been seeking her release. Listen to this article with a free account00:0000:00A vehicle drives along the U.S.-Mexico border fence between Ciudad Juárez and El Paso, Texas, on Nov. 6. Christian Torres / Anadolu via Getty Images fileShareAdd NBC News to GoogleApril 6, 2026, 6:04 PM EDTBy Nicole AcevedoA 3-year-old child was separated from her mother after she crossed the U.S.-Mexico border and endured sexual abuse while she was kept in prolonged federal immigration custody, according to allegations in court records.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.On Sunday, the American Bar Association's Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project published a social media video showing the girl, whose face was blurred, being reunified with her father, a legal permanent resident living in Chicago.The organization had filed a petition for habeas corpus in federal district court on Feb. 18 to expedite her release to her father after she was kept in federal custody for five months. "When a parent is a citizen or a resident, the government is required to reunify the family within 10 days," Laura Peña, director of the Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project in South Texas, told Noticias Telemundo in Spanish in a video interview.The girl’s mother brought her to the U.S. on Sept. 16. Agents with Customs and Border Protection separated them after they charged the mother with making false statements, according to the habeas corpus petition.Agents then designated the girl as an unaccompanied minor and transferred her to the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), a subdivision of the Department of Health and Human Services that manages the care of unaccompanied migrant children.On Nov. 11, while...