ICE Raises the Same Old “Consent” Defense to Claim of Sexual Assaults of Detainees

Sexual abuse of those detained in ICE centers is no secret.  Statistics show that there were 1448 complaints of sexual assault in just over five years with 237 assaults in 2017 alone.  Some of the assaults were on children.  Several employees have been arrested.  This with only 40% of sexual assaults in detention centers being reported by administrators.

Yet in a civil suit filed on behalf of assault victims, ICE  has raised the centuries old defense that the detainee, who was assaulted when detained with her three year old son, consented to the assault.  In this context, however, consent (even if it did exist) is irrelevant because in the detention setting, any sexual contact between an employee ad a detainee is a criminal offense. 

In E.D. v. Sharkey a detainee filed suit because she was assaulted while detained with her three year old son.  Among the defendants are those employees who stood by while the assault occurred and failed to protect E.D. The institutional defendant claims that it should not be liable to the Plaintiff because they are a detention center and not a prison or jail and therefore should not be accountable under the Prison Rape Elimination Act.  

The ACLU has filed an Amicus brief in support of E. D.