It just gets worse and worse.
Back in June, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection released a video showing dozens of immigrant children, who were separated from their parents, being held in cages at a detention center as a result of Trump's "zero tolerance" policy on immigrants. Now, The Nation reports that a six-year-old girl, identified by her initials D.L., was one of the girls sexually abused by an older boy as when they were held at an Arizona detention center. The incident reportedly happened on June 4 but D.L.'s father, who's an undocumented immigrant living in California, wasn't contacted about the situation until June 11. One day later, D.L. signed a contract (yes, they had a six-year-old sign a written contract), to show that she underwent "psychoeducation" described as "reporting abuse" and "good touch bad touch." It also listed that she's responsible for maintaining "appropriate boundaries with peers/workers."
D.L.'s mother was reportedly trying to escape from gang violence in their home country, Guatemala. When D.L.'s father shared the tragic news with her, she was devastated.
"I felt really horrible. I couldn’t do anything for her, because we were separated,” she told The Nation via a translator. "It was a nightmare. When my husband told me what happened, I felt helpless. She was so little, she was probably so scared, probably afraid to say anything to anyone. It was a total nightmare for me."
The two have since been reunited but D.L.'s mother said her little girl didn't recognize her at first and still behaves as if she's in the detention center.
"She is still behaving following the rules of the detention center," she explained. "She doesn’t let them touch her, she doesn’t touch them. She wakes up at 6, and bathes and eats. She behaves like she is programmed." This is America.
