By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
More than 1,000 people held at immigration detention centers reported being sexually assaulted in a little more than two years, according to an advocacy group, which cited Homeland Security data.
Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement obtained the information from a public records request, the Associated Press reports.
The AP wrote:
- Homeland Security inspector general’s office disclosed that it received 1,016 complaints from detainees reporting sexual abuse or assault from May 2014 to July 2016. More than 90 percent involved Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an agency within Homeland Security that has more than 30,000 beds at detention facilities nationwide.
- The inspector general received more than 33,000 allegations of a broader range of abuses from January 2010 to July 2016, including 702 for coerced sexual contact, 714 for physical or sexual abuse and 589 for sexual harassment, according to the group. The group’s analysis showed the inspector general investigated 247, or less than 1 percent. But it was unclear how many others were taken up by agencies in the department, such as Immigration and Customs and Enforcement or Customs and Border Protection.
Gillian Christensen, a Homeland Security spokeswoman, downplayed the assaults, saying the number is relatively low compared to the number of admissions to ICE facilities.
