“He was 42 years old,
married, white guard.
She’s a 19-year-old asylum
seeker with a 3-year-old.”
In 2014, E.D. and her son
awaited asylum at Berks,
a family detention
facility contracted
by the U.S. Immigration
and Customs Enforcement
agency, known as ICE.
“Her life experience
is one in Honduras
of being brutally beaten
and raped by her partner.
But she was also in this
Berks County facility
that is purported to provide a
safe space for these families
while they go through the
immigration process.”
“He had been giving them favors,
given her little boy toys
and candy.
And he had told her that,
you know, he could help her out
and that he was friends
with the deportation officer.”
“I did have 
feelings for her.
I mean, 
I liked her.
I wasn’t having — my home
life wasn’t as great,
so it was nice to have
somebody, you know, that
would give me attention.”
Early on, Sharkey
told his supervisors
that E.D. was 
flirting with him.
According to case
records, instead
of transferring
Sharkey, the supervisor
told him to keep his distance
and immediately report
if anything else transpired.
“It was a friendly
relationship at that time.
That’s how it was.
And then it just kind of
snowballed from there.”
“Me being in a power position,
and her being kind of
like, you know, being
a resident there,
she was never —
I mean —
I never threatened her
or anything like that.
I never said any
of those words
to her to make her,
make her think that.”
“This is a hallway
that everyone walks by.
Guards walk by.
It’s by the
administrative wing.
What we found out through
the words of Daniel Sharkey
is they all knew.”
Another detainee also knew.
According to her
deposition, Sharkey
asked her to keep watch and
propositioned her for sex.
Like E.D., several
thousand immigrants
have claimed sexual
abuse in detention
over the last decade.
Currently, there are
nearly 42,000 immigrants
in detention 
on any given day.
President Trump has
already proposed
expanding detention capacity
for 2019, a plan that
could lead to a 50 percent
increase of the daily population
since he took office.
His new executive order
ends family separation,
but expands family
detention, leading
to an even larger
population of immigrants
held in federal custody.
“Any time you have a
particularly vulnerable
population being detained in
a confined space, that creates
a potential for abuse.”
“Many of these
women have never
been in 
a detention facility.
They didn’t 
commit a crime.
This is all new,
to be in a facility
where they’re actually
treated as a prisoner.”
“In the case of
women, the majority
of those in immigration
detention are seeking asylum,
and, in fact, are usually
fleeing violence.”
Ultimately, it was an
8-year-old girl’s eyewitness
account that led to
an investigation.
Sharkey was fired from Berks.
He later pleaded guilty to
institutional sexual assault.
“I do not believe there’s
a culture of abuse.
For the past six years,
it’s been less than 1 percent
of our population has
reported an incident.”
ICE recorded over 1,300
allegations of sexual abuse
and sexual assault
against detainees
from fiscal years
2013 through 2017.
Of these cases, ICE deemed
more than half of them
inconclusive.
“Well, it’s certainly not
in their self-interest
to have cases of sexual abuse
and assault confirmed.”
Kevin Landy ran the office
responsible for reforming
ICE’s policies on sexual
abuse under President Obama.
That office was closed
on the second day
of the Trump Administration.
ICE says the personnel
from that office
were incorporated
under another division.
“Written policies
that the agency has on
responding to allegations
of sexual abuse and assault
are very comprehensive.
But the reality on the ground
is that there are still
some serious flaws
and challenges
in how those policies
are being implemented.”
There’s a network of
over 200 facilities
that ICE currently uses
to detain immigrants.
These range from facilities
run by private prison
companies dedicated
exclusively
to immigration detention,
to federal prisons
and contracted
county jails that
host both inmates and
immigrant detainees.
“The investigations that
ICE has in place right now
to keep tabs on all of the
many facilities it oversees
are not adequate.
It’s often like — almost
like a rubber stamp.
You see facilities
passing their inspections
with flying colors
year in and year out.”
Megan Mack was tasked with
investigating complaints
and filing reports on
abuses for all of D.H.S.,
including ICE, under the
Obama Administration.
“Often we would
go to a facility
and do an investigation,
and then years
would go by without the
complaints being addressed.”
Maria sought asylum
in the United States
after fleeing
violence in Guatemala.
She spent over a month in an
immigration detention center.
She was permitted to
leave the facility in 2010
while her case was pending.
The man Maria is referring
to is Donald Dunn.
He was a guard at the
T. Don Hutto Residential Center
in Texas, where 
Maria was held.
One of Dunn’s jobs was
to transport detainees.
“When he let her out of the
van at the Austin airport,
she ran.
The guard there at the airport
asked her what was wrong
and she immediately told
him what had happened.”
ICE policy mandates
that detainees
be transferred with at least
one guard of the same sex.
But according to case records,
Hutto violated that order
77 times in less
than a year, allowing
male guards, including Dunn,
to transport women alone.
Ultimately, eight women 
testified in a civil suit.
“Probably there
were many more,
because these were the women
who could be tracked down
and who were
willing to speak.”
Donald Dunn served
less than two years
on charges arising from his
assault on multiple women.
The Hutto detention
center has recently
been investigated by
the F.B.I. for other claims
of sexual abuse
committed by guards.
And in June, a civil rights
group lodged new complaints
accusing guards
of masturbating
in front of female detainees
and forcing them
into sex acts.
Immigrant detention
in all its forms
is expanding under the
Trump Administration.
ICE is looking into options
for an additional 15,000 beds
to detain parents
and their children.
Families aside, Trump’s
“zero-tolerance policy”
has taxed an already
overwhelmed system.
As policies
continue to change,
and the administration
faces legal obstacles,
the path forward is unclear.
Meanwhile, those in detention
remain vulnerable to abuse.
