Women allege sexual abuse at Texas immigrant detention center

[Scairp]

Source: CNN

(CNN) -- Women detained at an immigrant holding facility in southern Texas allege workers there have sexually abused them, including by removing them from their cells at night for sex as well as fondling them in front of others, lawyers wrote in a letter to federal officials this week.

Some guards or other workers at the Karnes County Residential Center also asked sexual favors of female detainees in exchange for money or promises of assistance -- including help with their immigration cases or shelter if they are released -- the lawyers allege in the letter.


Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/03/justice/texas-immigrant-detention-allegations/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

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I knew this was going to happen. Why is it everywhere you turn there are predatory men put in charge of vulnerable women and children? Just appalling.

[valerief]

1. And this surprises who? nt

[alp227]

2. Cue the outrage from the "enforce the law, secure the borders" types in 3...2...

oh wait, laws only apply to poor brown immigrants, not patriotic border patrol officers!

[TexasTowelie]

3. Not surprised at all about this story.

I grew up about 45 miles away from Karnes City and it would be abnormal for the employees not to act that way.

[Helen Borg]

4. When you have vulnerable women and men in charge...

This ALWAYS happens, unless there are tight procedures and rules to prevent it. I suppose the opposite would happen as well (vulnerable men with women in charge), but we'll have to wait for more of those situations to see if this is the case.

[RKP5637]

5. Yep, agree! Situations like this are always ripe for abuse no matter what the sexes are.

Power and control brings out a lot of behavior in the controllers over the vulnerable, hence, tight procedures and rules to prevent it are always necessary IMO. I don't know if it's more prevalent now or we just have better communications about what is going on. My suspicions are it's always been the same, but now we hear about it more easily which is good.

[chrisa]

8. And what essentially amounts to a private prison.

Private prisons are especially brutal and stuff like this is so common place that it ought to be known as standard fare. Imo, prisons run by anyone but the government should be banned forever, and government prisons heavily regulated.

[IronLionZion]

9. vulnerable people and people in charge

Some people can't handle power and will turn abusive

[JonLP24]

6. Amazing this reached CNN

typically things like this don't make it out or allegations taken seriously enough to make it out this far.

I have no doubt it is true because of the situation, unlikely to be found out especially if a whole unit shift is in it. Low risk if they do say anything.

I hope they face consequences for their actions, it really disgusts me when people take advantage of their profession and job title, especially over people who can't leave.

[Helen Borg]

10. And we can guess that...

The reality is probably much worse than what has emerged so far.

[JonLP24]

11. No doubt

It is a miracle we learn the corruption we do. Torture photos probably wouldn't have been discovered if it wasn't for the photos, lack of pictures and video is the primary reason these type of things go on.

Here is a good example of why it is so hard to take notice when they do happen.

Take a look at the transcript of a radio transcript interview w/ NFL QB Drew Brees did after his visit to Guantanamo

Drew: I guess. I think the international media has given so much scrutiny about the way that were treating these guys its almost that were going overboard to treat them so well. I mean, they are allowed to call and write letters home and allowed to receive letters and calls, they get 5 opportunities a day to pray and they have arrows in the prison toward where the Mecca is and the prison goes dead silent so these guys can have their religious time. They have rooms where they can watch movies and watch Nintendo Wii. So I think that goes ahead and says it right there. You talk to all the guards and the army personnel and they tell you stories about how these prisoners, they’ll be walking the cell block just to keep an eye on these guys and they’ll be throwing the feces and urine in the faces of these guards as they walk by and the guards aren’t allowed to do anything. They’re not allowed to physically retaliate. I mean these guys get away with whatever they want. It was interesting at one point we were walking around from one detention center to another and some of the prisoners saw us and started yelling “torture torture”. We teach them English by the way.

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BR: So they can yell at you!

Drew: They assume since were in civilian clothes that we are members of the media. So they started yelling “torture torture” like hey they’re torturing us. Anything they can do to show a poor light on the US or the US military they’re going to do it. But they are getting treated very very well.

BR: So when they started yelling “torture” did you give them the finger? What did you do? Did you laat em’? You didn’t have anything for them.

Drew: We were told not to look at them not to do anything.

BR: I’d give them the finger. They think I’m the media they’re trying to make my country look bad. I’d give them one of those.

Now as we know torture is well documented -- http://detaineetaskforce.org/read/#/42/zoomed but taking into account Brees assumption to that individual's motivation behind the yells is plausible but for the sake of discussion lets say what he was saying he was true. Brees dismissed it as an untrue and the radio host took it several steps further. Imagine being in his shoes and actually tortured, could you imagine suffering in detainment w/ no way out then you see high profile outsiders and you're desperate to do anything to draw attention to what is going on and (say the radio host was there instead of Brees) and someone gives you the finger? That kind of thing can be very demoralizing.