Detained immigrant who alleged abuse has been released

AUSTIN, Texas—A Salvadoran woman who said a guard groped her inside an immigration detention facility has been released, advocates said.

Laura Monterrosa-Flores was released late Friday from the T. Don Hutto Residential Center outside of Austin, where she had been held for months, Grassroots Leadership organizer Bethany Carson told The Associated Press on Saturday.

“She’s able to go about her life and recover from the abuses that she suffered in detention and before that, in El Salvador,” Carson said.

The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which had sued on Monterrosa-Flores’ behalf, said in a statement Saturday that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security agreed to release her under deferred action, which provides individuals temporary relief from deportation.

Earlier this month, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an agency within the department, agreed to allow Monterrosa-Flores to leave the facility on a weekly basis to receive treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. Advocates said that she attempted suicide in January after being denied a request for mental health care.

Carson said Monterrosa-Flores will receive counseling while waiting for her asylum case to proceed.

While the AP doesn’t usually identify alleged victims of sexual assault, Monterrosa- Flores agreed to come forward publicly.

Months after accusing a female guard at the Hutto facility of groping her and suggesting they have sex, Monterrosa-Flores told the AP that she continued to see the guard in the dining hall and other areas.

“I told her that I was going to tell the supervisor what was happening,” Monterrosa-Flores said in a phone interview from the facility. “She sarcastically said, ‘Do you think they’ll believe you or me?’”

The FBI opened a civil rights investigation into Monterrosa-Flores’ case.