Trading sex for US green card: says authorities

A 21-year-old Lebanese woman has accused an official at an immigration detention center in the U.S. state of Texas of sexual assault. She alleges that the official offered to help her obtain a green card, permanent legal residency in the United States, in exchange for sexual favors. She further claims that he threatened to have her husband imprisoned and deported if she did not agree to his proposal.

The woman, Rahaf Ali Al-Merhij, also known as Lucy Wise, consented to the disclosure of her identity and shared these allegations in an interview with Newsweek. She has also submitted a sworn affidavit detailing the accusations to the Office of Inspector General at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

According to Al-Merhij, an immigration and deportation officer named Markel Wallace took her into a secluded room at the El Valle Detention Center in Raymondville, Texas. The door to the room locked automatically from the outside. She alleges that, while inside, the official subjected her to unwanted sexual touching.

She claims the official told her, "I will get you a green card," adding, "Your husband is old; he can't do anything for you, but I can."

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), has denied these allegations. In a statement to Newsweek, a department spokesperson described the claims of misconduct at the El Valle Detention Center as "false."

However, the spokesperson noted that such allegations of misconduct are taken very seriously and are subject to thorough investigation, with appropriate action taken should the claims be substantiated.

Newsweek reported that it has not been able to independently verify the allegations beyond Al-Merhij’s interview and affidavit; thus, the woman’s account remains the primary basis for the claims at this time.

After Trump was elected president, ICE went on a nationwide spree to deport and arrest as many, of who they deem, “illegal aliens”. Recently, the department has been under fire for their needless cruelty and recklessness when handling immigrants, going after and violently harming both children and the elderly, hiring staff who were both unprofessional and with a history violence, and most infamously for the murder of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. There have also been reports of ICE agents who were subjecting the detainees to physical, mental, and sexual abuse. 

Though the Trump administration brushed off these allegations as fake news, recent news seems to only reinforce and, for some, outright confirm them and what news sources critical of the department has been reporting on.

-    NS