A 12-year-old Honduran girl who came to the United States as an unaccompanied minor was reportedly beaten, restrained, and sexually abused by her sponsors, according to police.
Two sisters, Brenda Garcia, 38, and Tania Garcia, 37, were arrested in Montgomery County, Texas, earlier this month after allegedly abusing the girl for months, various news sources reported.
The girl was an unaccompanied minor released to a distant uncle in Houston while her mother stayed in Honduras, Fox News Digital reported.
A U.S. Health and Human Services official told Fox News that the girl came into the country under the Obama administration in June 2014.
Court documents detail months of abuse after the child reportedly escaped from the home in late September. She had an infected gash on her head and injuries all over her body.
Tania Garcia is charged with injury to a child and unlawful restraint. Brenda Garcia is accused of injury to a child, unlawful restraint, and invasive visual recording after being accused of taking nude photos of the 12-year-old victim, KGW News 8 reported.
In a Facebook post from the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, detectives assigned to the Special Victim’s Unit responded to a call on Sept. 28 involving a 12-year-old child who disclosed ongoing physical and sexual abuse.
“The child was taken to a local hospital, where medical staff confirmed injuries consistent with abuse and malnutrition,” the posts states.
Montgomery County Sheriff Wesley Doolittle added, “The safety and well-being of children will always be my highest priority. This case is deeply disturbing, but it also highlights the importance of community awareness and the courage it takes to speak up. Together, we can protect the most vulnerable among us and ensure that justice is served.”
According to local news reports, the child escaped after she broke out of her restraints and fled the home. Investigators said the child would be left zip-tied to chairs and a table and had injuries and scars all over her body.
The young child appears to be among the many victims of Obama’s and Biden’s unaccompanied minor program. She told detectives she was living with an uncle in Houston who sexually abused her and ended up at the home of Brenda Garcia.
According to detectives with MCSO’s Special Victims Unit, the girl said Brenda Garcia, who knows the uncle, picked her up from school one day in March and took her to Conroe to live with her, KGW reported.
Detectives said the child endured horrific abuse that included being beaten, starved and restrained, which is detailed in a 10-page court document.
The child told detectives Brenda Garcia took nude photos of her and choked her until she could not breathe. She even wrapped a belt around her neck, strangling her and telling the victim to “just die,” according to court documents.
Brenda Garcia also allegedly took photos and video of the girl as she showered and would call her names, prosecutors said.
Others allegations include:
- Forced to strip nude, crawl on the floor and bark like a dog.
- Beaten with sticks, cords and a belt with a spike.
- Starved and allowed to have only ramen noodles and water twice a day.
- Forced to eat things off the floor, including dirt and hair.
The girl told detectives she was hit with cables and a belt with a spike on it until she bled, Fox News Digital reported. She was bound with zip ties at night and, at times, tied to a chair for “stealing food.”
The sisters removed her mattress, and she was forced to sleep on a tablecloth on the floor while restrained, according to court documents. She told police they also used zip ties to restrain her to a small table, and she would be beaten whenever she urinated herself while sleeping.
Home surveillance video reportedly showed Tania Garcia hitting the child with a spike belt while being tied up before she left the house, KTRK-TV reported.
In addition, KGW News reported detectives found video from security cameras inside the house and on Brenda’s cell phone that match the victim’s account of what happened. MCSO said they also found text messages from Brenda where she admitted that she hit the girl.
Medical staff who treated her said the girl’s injuries on her face, head, ears, arms, back, legs, feet and hands are consistent with her account of what happened, KGW reported. They also noted that she suffers from psychological trauma.
When the sisters were questioned at their home, they claimed the girl was “psychotic” and that she had injured herself, KGW 8 reported.
A report by ABC13 News said CPS was reportedly involved in the case, but Brenda Garcia told CPS the child moved back to Honduras with her mother.
ABC13 is working to find out more about the child’s uncle or if charges will be filed against him.
“Regarding any further arrests, the investigation is ongoing, and we cannot provide anything further right now to protect the integrity of the case,” a District Attorney’s office representative in Montgomery County told the news station.
Fox News Digital reported there was a massive surge in unaccompanied children during the Obama administration. Between 2013 and 2014, the number of unaccompanied children apprehended at the border increased nearly 80%, from 38,759 in fiscal year 2013 to 68,541 in fiscal year 2014.
In addition, according to Congressional investigations, the Biden administration reportedly lost track of 300,000 unaccompanied minors. Many are believed to be victims of abuse, human trafficking and labor trafficking. HHS is working to track down the children.
President Donald Trump has blamed the Biden administration for the disastrous program that sent unaccompanied children to live with unvetted sponsors and people who were not relatives.
“Hundreds of thousands were lost through Biden and the Biden administration,” Trump said last week. “We are getting a lot of them back, but they’re either dead, slaves, or captured. But think about it — hundreds of thousands we’re talking about — and they came in through the border, sold, bargained for. This was all Biden. Meaning Biden and Obama — the same mentality.”
