An immigrant woman who says she was raped at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in Texas filed suit Wednesday against the private prison company that runs it. The June 2018 attack, which the woman says went on for more than an hour, took place just hours before she was deported to Mexico. Identified in the complaint as Jane Doe, the woman said she was detained for roughly three months in 2018 at the Houston Processing Center operated by private prison company CoreCivic, according to BuzzFeed News. The day Doe was supposed to be deported, she and two other women were taken from their housing area to a dark and isolated cell, the complaint alleges. Later that night, she and the other women were each assaulted by three men who entered the cell.
According to the complaint, the men not only slapped and punched Doe but continuously hit her as she tried to resist. The next day, all three women were deported without even the chance to shower. The women also suffered bruises to their faces, the lawsuit alleged, But the trauma doesn’t end there: Shortly after arriving back in Mexico, Doe realized she was pregnant.
Doe immediately knew it was a result of the rape because she had not been sexually active for two years prior to the attack, the complaint said. She then gave birth to her perpetrator’s daughter in 2019. "This nightmare has caused me great harm and stress. I hope the United States government and the directors of these private jails prevent this violence from happening to others," Doe said in a recorded statement obtained by BuzzFeed News.
While the company said it could not comment on pending litigation, CoreCivic spokesperson Amanda Gilchrist said it had not been served with the complaint yet but has a “zero-tolerance policy for all forms of sexual abuse and sexual harassment.” ICE followed suit, saying that it also does not comment on pending lawsuits but emphasizing that a lack of comment is not equivalent to confirming any of the allegations. "ICE employees and contractors are held to the highest standard of professional and ethical conduct," the agency said, according to BuzzFeed News. "Incidents of misconduct are treated with the utmost seriousness and investigated thoroughly. When substantiated, appropriate action is taken."
According to a report created and submitted to the government by CoreCivic, at least eight complaints of sexual abuse were made against employees at the center in 2017; of the eight, the company declared seven of them unfounded. "This probably happens more often than reported," Doe’s attorney Michelle Simpson Tuegel told BuzzFeed News. Sexual assaults are severely underreported nationwide, especially against government agencies. A 2017 analysis of government data found that even when reported, abuse cases against agencies including ICE are rarely investigated by U.S. officials.
Discrepancies in complaints of sexual abuse have long been reported. Freedom for Immigrants, an advocacy organization, found officials only investigated .07% (or 225 of 33,126) complaints made within a six-year period, BuzzFeed News reported. While the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) did conduct 570 investigations during that time frame, only 225 arose from a complaint.
Similarly, between 2014 to 2018, the Office of Refugee Resettlement, an agency focused on the health of ‘unaccompanied minors,’ received over 4,500 allegations of sexual abuse or harassment in detention centers—many allegedly committed by staff members, The New York Times reported. This data refers to immigrant minor children, but detained immigrant women are also extremely vulnerable to abuse and assault in such places. Both vulnerable populations often face additional trauma as a result of horrid conditions in the centers and sexual abuse, including nightmares and post-traumatic stress disorder.
According to the lawsuit, Doe is still in Mexico and continues to suffer both mental and physical pain following her assault. She suffered severe complications during the birth of her daughter, resulting in substantial blood loss and extended hospitalization. In addition to these issues, Doe has suffered victim-shaming and cultural stigma surrounding her rape.
According to BuzzFeed News, Doe is “seeking punitive damages for negligence, assault and battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress among other charges.” The lawsuit has named as defendants not only the facility but its warden Robert Lacy and assistant warden David Price, in addition to the three unidentified men accused of raping the women. Despite being deported, Doe’s attorney says she still has the ability to sue both CoreCivic and her three attackers. "I hope we're able to proceed to the point of a jury trial and let citizens decide if companies should be paid billions of dollars to do this to people," Simpson Tuegel told BuzzFeed News. "If you don't care about the people, you should at least care about rape on the taxpayer's dime."
While ICE claims it cares about the detained, evidence showing a lack of medical care, multiple reports of assault, and clear negligence says otherwise. Violence against women is a widespread phenomenon and a human rights violation, and it is often unreported due to the stigma, silence, and shame surrounding it. According to the National Crime Victimization Survey, which includes crimes that were not reported to the police, more than 600 women are sexually assaulted in the U.S. each day, and women of color make up a disproportionate amount of the victims.
Sexual assault is a heinous crime that must not go unpunished and should especially not be occurring in a government facility. This incident only furthers the argument that ICE must be abolished.
