Contemplating the Scope of Sexual Abuse in Immigrant Detention Settings

The Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) was passed in 2003 and implemented by executive order in 2012, but the reorganization prompted by the events of 9/11 inadvertently created a legal technicality that left immigration detention facilities exempt from PREA. Now immigrant rights advocates are concerned that this omission has rendered these facilities “black holes” in which sexual abuse of detainees may be occurring unchecked.