This story contains detailed descriptions of sexual violence.
A Honduran woman living in Connecticut, identified in a federal lawsuit as Jane Doe, alleges that former U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Wilfredo Rodriguez threatened her with deportation if she didn’t have sex with him. This abuse of power, the lawsuit alleges, led to him raping her as frequently as four times a week, which resulted in her becoming pregnant three times. Those three pregnancies ended in abortions, one of which, the suit alleges, the former ICE agent paid for. The alleged abuse happened over the course of seven years.
Doe is suing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, ICE, and Rodriguez. In total, she is seeking $10 million in damages.
ICE has confirmed that Rodriguez no longer works for the agency.
According to the lawsuit, Rodriguez and Doe met in 2006 when her brother was arrested for entering the country without documentation. Rodriguez told Doe, who was also living in the country without documentation, that in order to avoid being deported herself, she had to work as an informant and help the agency locate people for deportation. The suit says that Doe identified three men living in the U.S. without documentation.
The suit alleges that Rodriguez instructed her to meet him at a motel in an effort to locate a person of interest in 2007. While in the motel room, Doe alleges, after she refused to have sex with Rodriguez, he covered her mouth, pushed her onto the bed, put his gun beside her, and raped her. In other instances, the suit alleges, Rodriguez forced her to perform oral sex on him, as well as other “abhorrent” sexual acts.
The lawsuit states that the former agent threatened to kill her and her family on multiple occasions. She attempted to die by suicide four separate times, says the suit.
Last year, when her father was seeking asylum, an ICE agent approached her about her father’s application. She told that agent about her situation. The agent advised her to speak to an attorney. The suit was filed on Saturday.
“My only comment is that my client had a choice, cooperate with ICE or be deported with her family,” Doe’s lawyer, George Kramer, said in an email to the AP. “She remains in a very fragile psychological state. She is not only seeking compensation for the physical and emotional damage she suffered but to change the way those who are cooperating with ICE are treated by those in a position of power and who often wield total control over the ability to remain in the United States.”
The allegations in this suit paint a picture of sexual violence and abuse of power. This is not the first time ICE agents have been accused of sexual violence, especially, but not exclusively, in detention centers. The centers themselves are ripe with opportunities for this kind of abuse, and not just by ICE agents. A jailed 6-year-old girl, separated from her mother, alleged that she was sexually abused by an older child being held in the same facility. How was that handled? The small child had to sign a form agreeing to stay away from her alleged abuser.