Abuse In A Center For Migrant Minors?

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

An employee of a detention center for migrant minors was arrested and faces charges of sexual abuse. Fernando Magaz Negrete, 32, was accused of improperly touching an immigrant teenager detained at the Southwest Key Center in Phoenix. The man was fired and is in the Maricopa County Jail. The 14-year-old boy who was allegedly the victim of the abuse is one of the children of immigrants detained at the border and separated from their parents.

On July 25, the Phoenix Police responded to a call at this center. According to police spokesman Vicent Lewis, a witness said he saw Magaz Negrete improperly touch a 14-year-old boy. The employee admitted to having committed the action.

This is one of several complaints that have been made of alleged abuses in these centers that house migrant minors. The case of a 6-year-old Guatemalan immigrant girl who was allegedly sexually abused at a center in Arizona was also disclosed. The offender allegedly was a boy who was housed in the same center.

Activists and lawmakers have expressed outrage at the Donald Trump administration's "Zero Tolerance" policy that separated some 3,000 minors from their parents at the US border upon arrival from their countries as undocumented. Celebrities like Eva Longoria have also spoken out against the separation of families. "It makes me very sad, it makes me helpless," added Alejandra Espinoza, who also asked to take action to reunify these minors with their parents.