Women say immigrant detention guards retained despite abuse

AUSTIN, Texas – A Mexican American civil rights group says two female past detainees want a federal investigation of the privately run immigrant detention centre where they’d been held.

In a Monday statement, the Mexican American Legal Defence and Educational Fund said the women alleged that guards retained their jobs at the T. Don Hutto Residential Center in Taylor, despite sexually abusing them. MALDEF says it conveyed the women’s demand in a letter to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. An agency spokesman didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Nashville, Tennessee-based CoreCivic manages the Hutto Center.

One of the women, Laura Monterrosa-Flores, was detained at Hutto from May 2017 to March 2018. The Associated Press doesn’t usually identify alleged victims of sexual assault, but she agreed to come forward publicly.