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Two sisters from Rochester, who fled Honduras as teenagers and were later arrested crossing the U. S. border. U. S. citizens on foot received $80,000 to settle a lawsuit against the federal government alleging they were held in an abusive cage.
The settlement, approved Thursday by U. S. District Judge Nancy Brasel, asks the sisters, ages 19 and 17, to split the money equally. young woman.
“We hope that the lawsuit and sharing our story will replace the way the government treats young people who come to the United States,” older sister Kerlin Sanchez Villalobos said in remarks released by the American Civil Liberties Union, which represented the plaintiffs. “I don’t need a child to be treated like we were. “
The U. S. attorney representing the government did not respond to comment Friday, and a spokeswoman for the U. S. Attorney’s Office declined to comment. In April, CBP denied the sisters’ allegations.
Sanchez Villalobos and his sister, known in court documents as YS because she is still a minor, left home in 2019 to seek asylum and join their mother, Daysi Villalobos Izagguire, in Minnesota. The sisters, aged 16 and 14 at the time. , were arrested while crossing the border on foot and taken to a CBP in Clint, Texas.
That same month, The Associated Press reported that immigration lawyers had decided that many young people had been locked up there without sufficient food, water or sanitation. A New York Times article called Clint’s location “the public face of chaos in the American South. “edge. “
The Minnesota and Texas branches of the ACLU, in pronouncing the agreement, said the inmate sisters had suffered physical assault, food and water shortages, and necessities such as showers, linen and adequate bedding. The lawsuit also claims officials threw away the younger sister’s medicine to treat a leg and hip injury.
The sisters were also forced to “compete for food” and were forced to care for children younger than themselves, she continued Thursday.
“Just being locked up, it’s horrible,” Villalobos said after the deal was announced. “Little children are crying, it’s horrible. “She said: “The officials told us to silence the young people who were crying. We, the older youth, were only seeking to comfort them and communicate with them. What I would do would be braid their hair. “
The sisters said they had spent nine days in a cage, had only been allowed to shower once and were hungry and cold. The guards limited their access to a phone.
Villalobos said an officer kicked her in the back and ankle as she sat in line with detainees. As a result, he had to wear a walking boot, he said.
Later, according to the lawsuit, the women were separated after being taken to the organization’s homes near Brownsville, Texas.
Sánchez Villalobos was detained for 20 days and Y. S. spent 29 days. When, regardless, he was reunited with his mom in Rochester, Sanchez Villalobos said, “She cried and Array. . . He felt really bad about everything we had been through. “
Both women attend Rochester High School and work. After high school, Sánchez Villalobos plans to continue her studies, while her sister needs to be a veterinarian or nurse.
“Children at the border are already terrified and vulnerable,” said Teresa Nelson, director of the ACLU of Minnesota. an inhumane and inexcusable violation of the rights of these young people. “
Nelson added that he hopes the agreement “holds CBP accountable for its long history of detaining young people in substandard conditions. “
Star Tribune editor Maya Rao contributed to this report.