The nation's broken immigration system continues to create economic problems for U.S. employers and humanitarian violations inflicted on immigrants who are in the country legally and illegally. In hundreds of detention centers and shelters around the country where adults and minors are held for long periods of time while their status is determined, abuses range from the sexual molestation of children to near-slave labor terms for adult detainees

Imagine being responsible for more than 60,000 unaccompanied minors fleeing gang violence and economic destitution in South and Central America. That's the situation of the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement, which arranges temporary housing for minors who are in this country without documentation in a network of shelters officially described as safe havens.

Public officials have the responsibility to make sure these children are safe while in U.S. custody, whether or not they become permanent residents. That is not always the case. According to a Chronicle investigation led by reporter Susan Carroll ("Children fleeing to U.S. land in shadowing system," Page A1, May 25), young people in ORR custody in Texas were molested as they slept and were sexually harassed. These alleged incidents happened during the past decade when ORR was responsible for fewer minors than today.

The agency is experiencing an almost 100 percent increase in the number of minors in temporary housing since 2011. Most of these minors in temporary housing do not speak English. Many of them have suffered traumatic violence in their homelands. The detention network is a breeding ground for child abuse and neglect. Action needs to be taken to increase the likelihood of successful prosecution of offenders and to keep kids safe.

President Barack Obama issued a memorandum on Monday describing the flood of unaccompanied minors into the country as "an urgent humanitarian situation requiring a unified and coordinated federal response." He ordered the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate efforts to provide housing, transportation and medical care for the young detainees.

While child immigrants are inadequately protected, their adult counterparts are exploited by what amounts to unpaid labor. An investigation by the New York Times of labor requirements at privately operated facilities, including Houston's Contract Detention Facility, found that detainees are often forced to work for a dollar or less a day even though they have not been convicted of a crime and half of those detained are eventually released and allowed to remain in the country.

The list of reasons for promptly passing immigration reform legislation gets longer and longer as Congress dithers. Constituents should demand their elected officials act together now to clean up a scandalously flawed system and replace it with one that reflects traditional American values.