According to research published this Thursday by The New York Times (TNYT) A group of immigrants who arrived last summer are suing members of the National Guard for millions of dollars before the Manhattan Federal Court. for alleged sexual misconduct and to the contractor company DocGO, for allegedly having committed abuse and violent acts.
The events, based on the lawsuits, apparently occurred in motels near the Buffalo Airport, northwest of New York, which were set up as emergency shelters to help with the collapse of the Big Apple’s municipal shelters.
“A guard was accused of sexual assault by forcing a migrant to exchange sexual favors in exchange for food and shelterand another of groping the woman’s 10-year-old daughter,” specifies the New York newspaper when describing the angles of the lawsuit.
A Venezuelan woman is accusing a National Guard sergeant of having sexual relations with her. He points out that he promised her that he would “help her start a new life in the United States.”
She also claimed that on Christmas, he took her to a house two hours from Buffalo, under the pretext that it would be “a fun family time” for her and her children, according to the lawsuit.
“Once there, he demanded sexual favors in exchange for helping her and her family, “She felt that she had no choice but to participate in sexual activities with the soldier.”says the text of the complaint shared by the New York media.
The migrant also claims that the sergeant’s behavior towards her 17-year-old daughter during the trip made her feel uncomfortable and that he He began texting his daughter and “telling her she was attractive.”
The accused sergeant acknowledged having a “flirtation” with the Venezuelan woman, but said he never crossed “any physical lines.” He also denied sending inappropriate text messages to his daughter.
“There was never anything sexual with anyone. “My mistake was being too kind to a migrant family,” he said.
The Venezuelan woman added in the lawsuit that her 10-year-old daughter was groped by another national guard, who told her that she was beautiful, in an area of the hotel without surveillance cameras, prompting her to flee from him.
For its part, National Guard spokesman Eric Durr told TNYT that “if allegations are substantiated after an investigation, this may result in administrative and/or disciplinary actions based on the military law of the state of New York.”
Two other episodes described in the lawsuit center on accusations against two security supervisors employed by DocGo, a company in charge of providing services in the shelters where thousands of immigrants and asylum seekers who have arrived en masse since the spring of 2022 are housed.
Various versions
In this case, the legal complaint was filed on behalf of seven people, including three immigrants and four current or former DocGo subcontractorsa company that is being investigated by the New York state attorney general, in part, for accusations of mistreatment of migrants.
In this sense, company officials said that their supervisors were cleared of irregularities, after an internal investigation.
The conclusion of the internal report, maintains that the alleged attack was an act of self-defense, when they intervened in an irregular situation, in which a migrant had allegedly abused his wife. They also found no evidence of a relationship or sexual abuse.
But the lawsuit filed this week suggested a very different version of events.
The man who was strangled, Alexander Vizcaíno, a Venezuelan migrant, and his wife, Florangelis Cabrera, They said a DocGo supervisor put his hands around their neck without physical provocation and then they were evicted from the hotel.
Following New York Times reporting on a lawsuit detailing allegations of abuse against migrants by members of the National Guard and contractor DocGo, the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC) called for a thorough investigation into these allegations.
“These disturbing allegations go against what New York stands for. If true, they represent an unacceptable breach of trust by those who have been given the responsibility to help all people in crisis, regardless of where they come from,” he shared in a statement, Murad Awawdeh, Director of NYIC.
The data:
- $260 million is the fiscal year 2025 budget forecast to fund the National Guard’s special mission to guard New York hotel shelters that house newly arrived immigrants.
2024-02-09 22:22:36
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