While immigrant children, who have been separated from their parents and housed at several detention centres in the United States, have already narrated some heartbreaking incidents, the latest one is probably the most disturbing one. A youth care worker at an immigration detention centre in Arizona has been arrested for molesting at least eight children at the facility.
Levian D. Pacheco, who is HIV-positive, has been charged with 11 sex offences after accusations that he had molested at least eight immigrant boys over the last one year. The charges include eight counts of abusive sexual contact and three counts of sexual acts.
Court records show that Pacheco has been accused of performing oral sex on two boys and trying to force another to penetrate him. The other children, who are said to be aged between 15 and 17, have said that Pacheco had groped them, reported Business Insider.
Pacheco has been working at Southwest Key's Casa Kokopelli shelter for the last two years and the centre has now been accused of failing to conduct a proper background check to ascertain if he was suitable for the job and ensuring he did not have any criminal records. In addition, documents also suggest that Pacheco was brought on board even before his background verification was completed.
While the accused hasn't spoken of the incidents yet, his defender Benjamin Good, said, "We are looking forward to defending Mr Pacheco in court," reported BI.
Meanwhile, another incident of sexual abuse has also come to the fore in Arizona. Fernando Magaz Negrete was arrested on Tuesday, July 31, for sexually abusing a 14-year-old detained at the facility.
The 32-year-old now faces charges of child molestation, sexual abuse and aggravated assault. He has been accused of kissing the girl several times and touching her breasts and crotch over her clothes. The incident was reported to the police by her roommates on July 25.
Parts of the incident have also been caught in surveillance cameras that show Negrete going to the detainee's room between 9 pm and about 10:30 pm on June 27, reported the AZ Central. The worker has now admitted to the crime.
Negrete has also been terminated from the facility and Jeff Eller, a Southwest Key spokesman, told the Associated Press: "When a child tells us of inappropriate behavior, we immediately call law enforcement and start an internal investigation as appropriate. Southwest Key always works with law enforcement to bring the full force of the law to bear when it is warranted."
The Trump admin has often said that these detention centres are safe and mindful of the children. However, immigrant children had, in June, alleged mistreatment.
Several immigrant children, some as young as 14, housed at a juvenile detention centre in Virginia spoke of abuse and torture. In federal court filings, which comprise many sworn statements from Latino children, many of the detainees spoke about how they were handcuffed, beaten and left nude in their cells. Some even said that the guards have often stripped them, strapped them to chairs and left with bags over their heads.
"Whenever they used to restrain me and put me in the chair, they would handcuff me," the Associated Press quoted a Honduran immigrant as saying.
"Strapped me down all the way, from your feet all the way to your chest, you couldn't really move. ... They have total control over you. They also put a bag over your head. It has little holes; you can see through it. But you feel suffocated with the bag on."
