Mexican Woman Falsely Accuses Houston Immigration Detention Center of Rape To Obtain a Visa
Razor wire is seen on the Metropolitan Detention Center prison as mass arrests by federal immigration authorities, as ordered by the Trump administration, were supposed to begin in major cities across the nation on July 14, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was expected to be target hundreds of Angelenos for deportation, plus family members and others they encounter and suspect of being undocumented. The city of Los Angeles declared itself a sanctuary city to reflect its policy since the 1970s of not allowing police to help immigration officials because the city wants its immigrant populations to not be afraid to cooperate with police or call in crimes and emergencies. Elected officials and activists have continued to lash out against the raids. David McNew/Getty Images

A Mexican woman previously sued the administrators of Houston Immigration Detention Center on grounds of rape claims on the premises in 2018. The case was later on dismissed after confessing that she lied with aim of acquiring a visa.

The woman was referred to as Jane Doe as she used a pseudonym in court documents. She had lived in Texas illegally for 10 years, according to a Daily Wire report.

The woman reportedly spent two years in prison after she was convicted of causing injury to a child and was transferred to the Houston Processing Center because U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had put a detainer on her after her release from prison.

Woman asked for monetary compensation

For two months, Jane was in the Center and claimed that she was raped that night she has to be deported.

In 2020, she filed a lawsuit against company contractor of Immigration and Customs Enforcement to run the Houston Processing Center, which is the CoreCivic Inc.

Jane said that she was raped in a dark room at the facility after being taken by guards, adding that there two other women in the room during the assault.

As part of the compensation, she asked for monetary damages and sought a visa to remain in the United States.

In the lawsuit, Jane further claimed that she was also impregnated in the Houston facility, where she was detained for two months.

It was filed last month and Jane's lawyers widely publicized the lawsuit, according to a Houston Chronicle report.

False Accusations

A transcript of a phone interview with a Harris County Sheriff's Office investigation and an ICE special agent shows Jane confessing that she lied to acquire a visa to stay in the United States.

The agents informed Jane that the found and interrogated the other women in the facility, who said they were not raped nor witnessed any sexual assault.

However, Jane continued to say that she was raped and then later admitted that it did not happened at the CoreCivic facility.

Jane continued to say that she was raped in Nuevo Laredo, which was on the Mexican side of the Texas border. The raped happened just after she was deported.

"It indeed happened, but not there in the cells. It was here in Mexico," Jane Doe was quoted on a report.

Jane added that she did not know who was the father of the child as she was raped by three strangers.

Steven Owen, vice president of communications for the company, said that Jane's false claims have caused and continue to cause CoreCivic significant harm.

Sexual Abuse in Detention Centers

Meanwhile, allegation of sexual abuse in immigrant detention centers continued to spread, such as the case in El Paso, wherein inmates were sexually assaulted and harassed in a pattern and practice, according to a Texas advocacy group that filed a complaint.

The filing claims that guards systematically assaulted at least three people in a facility managed by ICE. The abuse often happens in areas in the detention center that is not visible to security cameras, according to last year's report of Texas Tribune.

One immigrant woman said that guards forcibly kissed her and touched intimate part of her body. The woman then faced deportation.