Employee At Immigrant Shelter In Arizona Arrested For Allegedly Sexually Abusing Teen Girl

Source: Think Progress

Aug. 1, 2018, 8:16 PM

An employee at an Arizona facility that houses immigrant children separated from their families at the border has been arrested on suspicion of sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl, according to Phoenix police.

Fernando Negrete, 32, was arrested Tuesday and is facing charges of molestation of a child, sexual abuse, and aggravated assault, the Arizona Republic reported. One of the victim’s roommates informed police on July 25 that she had witnessed the suspect kiss the girl multiple times and touch her breasts and crotch over her clothes in the bedroom she shared with two other minors.

The claims made by the teen are substantiated by video surveillance footage showing Negrete near the girls’ room multiple times between 9 p.m. and about 10:30 p.m. on June 27.

According to the Phoenix Police Department, the suspect admitted to his involvement and was booked into jail on one count each of molestation, aggravated assault, and sexual abuse.

Just last week, ProPublica published police reports and call logs from more than two-thirds of youth immigrant shelters run and/or contracted by the U.S. Health and Human Services Department’s Office of Refugee Resettlement describing rampant abuse...More...


Read more: https://thinkprogress.org/employee-at-immigrant-shelter-in-arizona-arrested-for-allegedly-sexually-abusing-teen-girl-7c73f67e2ac3/

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Casa Antigua, a facility run by Southwest Key that houses immigrant children who have been separated from their families in San Benito, Texas. The Tuscon shelter where the alleged abuse of the 14-year-old girl occurred is operated by Southwest Key, a Texas-based nonprofit organization that houses more than 1,500 migrant children in Arizona, California, and Texas under a $458 million contract with the Department of Health and Human Service’s Unaccompanied Alien Children Program.