A civil lawsuit filed against the Department of Health and Human Services and its Office of Refugee Resettlement alleges that a three-year-old child was sexually abused while held for months in federal custody after being separated from her mother at the U.S. border. The case has raised renewed scrutiny of federal policies that have significantly increased the amount of time immigrant children remain in government care before being released to parents or sponsors.
According to the lawsuit and reporting, the child crossed the border with her mother last September and was separated after her mother was charged with making false statements. The toddler was placed in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which houses unaccompanied immigrant children in shelter or foster placements while arranging reunification with family members.
The child’s father, a legal permanent resident of the United States, spent months attempting to complete the requirements needed to bring his daughter home. During that time, according to court documents, the child was allegedly sexually abused by an older child living in the same foster setting in Harlingen, Texas.
“She was so long in there,” the father said. “I just think that if they would have moved faster, nothing like that would have happened.”
Court filings state that a caregiver noticed the child’s underwear was on backward, prompting questions that led the girl to disclose that she had been abused multiple times and that the abuse caused bleeding. According to the lawsuit, the child underwent a forensic exam and interview after reporting the abuse, and the older child accused of harming her was removed from the foster program.
The father said he was not initially told the nature of the incident and that federal officials described the situation only as an “accident.” He said he repeatedly sought information about what had happened to his daughter while she remained in government custody.
“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 said.
The Office of Refugee Resettlement and the Department of Health and Human Services were named in the lawsuit but did not respond to requests for comment cited in the source material.
The case comes as policy changes implemented under the Trump administration have made the process for releasing immigrant children more complex and time-consuming. Federal officials have said stricter screening measures are intended to prevent trafficking and ensure children are released to safe environments.
Sponsors seeking custody of children in ORR care must now complete extensive documentation requirements that include income verification, home inspections, fingerprinting, and DNA testing. Legal advocates say these expanded procedures have contributed to longer detention periods for children waiting to be reunited with their families.
When Trump began his second term in January 2025, children typically remained in ORR custody for an average of 37 days. By February, the average stay had increased to nearly 200 days, according to reporting cited in the source material. During the same period, the total number of children in ORR custody declined by about half.
Advocates say the extended timelines have required increased reliance on emergency legal measures to secure the release of children. Lauren Fisher Flores, legal director of the American Bar Association’s ProBar project and attorney representing the child’s family, said the organization has filed multiple habeas corpus petitions this year on behalf of children detained for extended periods.
In this case, attorneys contacted federal officials after months of delay, prompting the government to allow the father to complete fingerprinting, a home visit, and DNA testing. Even after those steps were completed, officials did not provide a timeline for the child’s release. Attorneys then filed a habeas petition in federal court, and the child was released to her father two days later.
“Increasingly, we have to turn to the federal courts to challenge these harmful legal violations and demand that children be released,” Fisher Flores said.
Fisher Flores also described the impact of the alleged abuse occurring while the child remained in government custody.
“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,” she said. “Children deserve safety and they belong with their parents.”
Legal advocates argue that the policy changes have created additional barriers for families attempting to reunify, including for parents who already have lawful immigration status in the United States.
Neha Desai, managing director at Children’s Human Rights and Dignity at the National Center for Youth Law, said the case reflects broader concerns about prolonged detention of immigrant children.
“This represents yet another version of family separation,” Desai said.
“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,” she added.
The father said he cried when he was finally reunited with his daughter. Although she was happy to see him, he said her behavior had changed after months in federal custody.
“She was never like that,” he said.
The father and daughter now live in Chicago with the child’s grandparents while her immigration case proceeds in court.
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