A judge is blocking the Trump administration from immediately deporting Guatemalan migrant children who came to the U.S. alone back to their home country. The Thursday decision by U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly comes after the Republican administration’s Labor Day weekend attempt to remove Guatemalan migrant children who were living in government shelters and foster care. Immigration and children’s advocates immediately sued to prevent the children’s removal, arguing that many of these children were fleeing abuse or violence and the government was bypassing longstanding legal procedures meant to protect them. Kelly’s decision extends a temporary order while the case plays out.
Two Romanian men have filed lawsuits in U.S. District Court in California accusing a former megachurch pastor of sexually abusing and trafficking children for years at a shelter he ran in Bucharest. The men say in their lawsuits filed Tuesday that Harvest Christian Fellowship pastor and missionary Paul Havsgaard severely abused them. The lawsuits also say church founder Greg Laurie and other senior leaders failed to prevent abuse. The Associated Press could not reach Havsgaard for comment. The church said the allegations are shocking but the lawsuit's target should be Havsgaard and not the church or its founding pastor.
A New York federal indictment has charged the longtime head of a Mexican megachurch with racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking. Authorities announced Wednesday that Naasón Joaquín García and five others were charged in the newly unsealed indictment. García is already serving more than 16 years in a California prison for sexually abusing young followers. The indictment alleges that García victimized members of the church for decades. It said that he and his father, who died in 2014, carried out the abuse of children and women. Attorney Alan Jackson, representing García, called the indictment “recycled claims dressed up in inflammatory language.”
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) — When a case of child abuse happens in Illinois, there are a lot parties involved. Police, medical professionals, th…
ILLINOIS (WAND) - Several lawmakers want the Department of Children and Family Services in Illinois to be audited after recent child abuse deaths.
*WARNING - Some of the details in this story my be hard for some viewers to read.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) - An audit of the Department of Children and Family Services looking into reports of child abuse and neglect over a t…
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) — Kadden Abbott usually wears a smile on his face — a smile that hides a difficult past.
DECATUR, Ill. (WAND) — For at least two and a half months, Ta'Naja Barnes spent her days giggling and playing.
DECATUR, Ill. (WAND) - Child abuse is defined as mistreatment of a child under the age of 18.