Office of Refugee Resettlement Needs to Apply PREA...Now

ORR Web

By Chris Sturgis  

I have been disappointed with the administration’s response to the stream of refugees from Central America that have been escaping the violence generated from the drug industry. The United States is the consumer market for the illegal drugs that create the drug cartels, which then create conditions in which children flee their homes in order to survive. IMHO this is a refugee issue, not an immigration one.

Thus the Center for American Progress’s article, Fostering Safety: How the U.S. Government Can Protect LGBT Immigrant Children by Sharita Gruberg and Hannah Hussey, caught my eye. The authors argue that the Prison Rape Elimination Act, or PREA, should be applied to the residential facilities housing minors who have come across the border. This seems like a pretty darn good idea.

The authors cite an investigation by the Houston Chronicle that “found 101 ‘significant incident reports’ of abuse allegations against staff members at facilities contracted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement, or ORR, the agency in charge of caring for unaccompanied children” between 2011 and 2013. They then argue that research shows lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth are even more vulnerable to this kind of abuse. Their conclusion is that we should apply the juvenile standards of PREA to the residential facilities to protect LGBT youth.

Certainly LGBT teens are more at risk, yet all unaccompanied minors are vulnerable to abuse. I agree wholeheartedly that once our country takes responsibility for youth coming to our country, we have the responsibility for their safety. I think it is a brilliant idea to advocate for PREA.

The authors provide invaluable history:

PREA was enacted in 2003 to respond to sexual violence in prisons. In 2012, President Barack Obama extended PREA to all federal confinement facilities. In March 2013, Congress added another requirement for the nearly 100 facilities contracted by ORR to hold children, giving ORR 180 days to write regulations bringing these facilities into compliance with PREA. Since the 180-day deadline passed, 63,000 unaccompanied children have crossed the border. In January 2014, ORR submitted an interim rule; however, it has yet to be published and, as of the writing of this issue brief, facilities contracted by ORR to care for unaccompanied children are still not governed by PREA.

Their call to action finds that simply stating a zero-tolerance policy is unacceptable. There needs to be a policy with teeth:

ORR currently has contracts with five juvenile detention facilities. These contracts state that they must comply with the Department of Justice's National Standards to Prevent, Detect, and Respond to Prison Rape, but not, bafflingly, with the Juvenile Facility Standards enacted specifically to govern juvenile detention facilities. For nonsecure facilities such as shelters, the contracts simply state that they must comply with ORR's zero-tolerance policy for sexual abuse and sexual harassment of unaccompanied children by staff, contractors, volunteers, or other unaccompanied children. However, ORR does not have procedures in place to enforce its zero-tolerance policy for sexual abuse or to ensure secure facilities comply with PREA.

What is needed is what the NPREC referred to as "zero tolerance with teeth." Properly implemented PREA guidelines provide the needed teeth to ORR's existing zero-tolerance policy. Staff members need training on preventing and responding to sexual violence in facilities that house children in order to understand that keeping children safe from sexual violence is everyone's responsibility. Additionally, hiring a PREA coordinator will better ensure proper implementation and oversight. Protections such as limits on cross-gender viewing and searches—except where necessary for the youth's safety—and LGBT-inclusive placement protocols help ensure that zero-tolerance policies protect all children, including LGBT children, in the care of ORR. Additionally, under PREA, ORR would be required to implement procedures for reporting abuse in a manner accessible to children, to track and investigate allegations of abuse, and to clarify procedures for third-party reporting, such as that done through attorneys. In order to prevent sexual violence, procedures must be in place for reporting and responding immediately to incidents.

If you want to know more, the article then goes into depth about the practices that should be in place.

Let’s put the pressure on. I’m writing the Office of Refugee Resettlement, Secretary of Human Services Sylvia Mathews Burwell, and President Obama right now.