作为特朗普政府“零容忍”政策的一部分，一些与家人分离的移民儿童表示，他们在联邦资助的寄养家庭中受到虐待。现在这些家庭正准备起诉政府，这可能会花费纳税人数亿美元。
这美联社审查了38项法律声明，在周五发表的一份报告中，其中一些从未被媒体详细报道过。几个家庭说，他们的小孩在寄养场所受到虐待，包括性虐待、身体虐待和情感虐待的指控。
一家代表家庭的公司的律师告诉新闻媒体，这只是“冰山一角”。这位律师补充道，移民政策迫使南部边境的家庭分离，这可能会带来更多的诉讼和法律挑战。
在提起诉讼之前，这些家庭正在根据《联邦侵权索赔法》提出法律索赔。该法案要求联邦政府作为自我保险人承担责任，并强制其承认以官方身份行事的雇员的过失或不法行为的责任。
据美联社报道，这些虐待的法律指控最终可能会让美国纳税人损失2亿美元。
美联社报道中提到的一个家庭是在危地马拉官员烧毁他们的房子后来到美国的。这家人逃到美国，希望获得庇护。他们7岁的儿子也有心脏问题，需要医疗护理。
但是当他们越过美国和墨西哥边境时，美国特工把父亲和儿子分开了。父亲被带到佐治亚州的一个拘留中心，儿子被带到纽约一个联邦资助的移民儿童寄养家庭。男孩后来说，他在家里多次受到大男孩的性骚扰。
2018年4月，特朗普政府公开宣布了“零容忍”政策。该计划对任何非法越境的人提起刑事诉讼。当时，司法部长杰夫·赛辛斯说，“非法行为必须有后果。”
这项政策出台后不久，新闻媒体开始报道，试图带着孩子来美国的移民父母受到刑事起诉。对他们的起诉导致儿童与父母分离。由于这项政策，大约3000名儿童被从家庭成员手中带走，并被运往全国各地的寄养场所。两个月后，在强烈的反对声中，唐纳德·特朗普总统签署了一项停止家庭分离的行政命令。
特朗普在关于行政命令的声明中表示:“我们将让家庭团结在一起，但我们仍必须保持韧性，否则我们的国家将被人、犯罪、所有我们不支持和不想要的东西所蹂躏。”。
尽管特朗普停止了家庭分离，美联社的报告以及其他法律文件和国会记录显示，全国各地的寄养儿童都遭受了严重创伤。
今年早些时候，参议员要求对移民儿童庇护所的性虐待进行调查。“被联邦监管的移民家庭和儿童应该得到基本的人的尊严和尊重，绝不应该受到这些形式的虐待，”立法者在给卫生和公共服务部监察长办公室的一封信中写道。
TAXPAYERS COULD PAY $200M IN DAMAGES FROM MIGRANT FAMILIES WHO SAY THEIR CHILDREN WERE ABUSED IN FEDERAL CUSTODY: REPORT
Some migrant children who were separated from their families as part of the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy say they were abused during their time in federally-funded foster care. Now the families are gearing up to sue the government, and it could cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.
The Associated Press reviewed 38 legal claims, some of which had never been detailed by the press, in a report published on Friday. Several families said that their young kids were mistreated in the foster care sites, including allegations of sexual, physical and emotional abuse.
An attorney at one of the firms representing families told the news outlet that this was just "the tip of the iceberg." There are likely more lawsuits and legal challenges coming as a result of the immigration policy that forced families to be separated at the southern border, the lawyer added.
The families are making legal claims under the Federal Tort Claims Act before filing lawsuits. The act holds the federal government responsible as a self-insurer and forces it to recognize liability for the negligent or wrongful acts of its employees acting in their official capacity.
These legal claims of mistreatment could end up costing American taxpayers $200 million, according to the Associated Press.
One of the families cited in the Associated Press report came to the United States after Guatemalan officials burned down their home. The family fled to America in hopes of being granted asylum. Their 7-year-old son also had heart problems and required medical care.
But when they crossed the U.S.-Mexico border, U.S. agents separated the father from his son. The father was taken to a detention center in Georgia and the son went to a federally-funded foster care home for migrant children in New York. The boy later said he was repeatedly sexually molested by older boys in the home.
In April 2018, the Trump administration publicly announced its "zero tolerance" policy. The plan criminally prosecuted anyone who crossed the border illegally. Then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions said at the time that there "must be consequences for illegal actions."
Soon after the policy was put into place, news outlets began to report that migrant parents trying to come to the U.S. with their children were being criminally prosecuted. Their prosecution resulted in the separation of children from their parents. Roughly 3,000 children were taken from family members and shipped to foster care sites around the country as a result of the policy. Two months later, amid intense backlash, President Donald Trump signed an executive order halting family separations.
"We're going to keep families together but we still have to maintain toughness or our country will be overrun by people, by crime, by all of the things that we don't stand for and that we don't want," Trump said in his announcement about the executive order.
Even though Trump stopped separating families, the report by the Associated Press along with other legal filings and congressional records show that children suffered serious trauma at foster care sites across the country.
Earlier this year, senators demanded an investigation into sexual abuse at immigrant children's shelters. "Immigrant families and children kept in federal custody deserve to be treated with basic human dignity and respect, and should never be subjected to these forms of abuse," the lawmakers wrote in a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General's Office.
