THREE HONDURAN GIRLS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED AT BRIDGE

A Mexican man waiting a work-permit hearing before U.S. immigration authorities at the Gateway Bridge has been accused of sexually molesting three Honduran migrant girls, one only 7 years old, who live in the tent city in Matamoros.

The girls are part of the migrant community camped on the Mexican side of the international bridge and the man was accused of abusing the three children by an aid worker who was told of the assaults by the victims.

Federico Javier,  from Mexico City, a "chilango," was brought before a judge by the Tamaulipas State Police, who conducted an investigation, and asked that he be held until charges could be filed against him.

However, another judge ruled that he was being held illegally and ordered him freed until formal charges could be filed.

Javier has been waiting for a hearing before U.S. immigration authorities in Brownsville for three months, the newspaper reported. A migrant aid worker told police she had learned of the assaults and the parents of the girls asked that police arrest the alleged violator.

The judge ordered that a hearing to determine whether Javier will be held in jail pending his trial be scheduled for a later date.

The migrants set up camp on the Mexican side of the Gateway Bridge after the Trump administration implemented a policy of making migrants wait in Mexico pending a hearing on their asylum requests, exposing them to crime gangs and drug cartel violence. Mexican authorities along the border from Matamoros to Calexico have been taxed to provide shelter, food and protection to thousands of asylum seekers, mostly Central Americans.