A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer has been accused of sexual assault by a 21-year-old Lebanese citizen, a former detainee at a detention center in Texas. According to Newsweek’s reporting, Markell Wallace allegedly offered the woman help obtaining a green card in exchange for sex. He also allegedly used blackmail to get what he wanted, threatening to arrest and deport her husband. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) denied the allegations.
Rahaf Ali Almerhij, who also uses the name Lucy Wise, laid out her accusations in a sworn statement addressed to the DHS Office of Inspector General. The woman claims that while she was held at the El Valle Detention Facility in Raymondville, an ICE officer took her to an isolated room, where he allegedly “touched her sexually” without her consent.
According to Almerhij’s account, the man also offered her “help” in obtaining permanent residency in the United States, known as a “green card,” in exchange for sex. The agent also allegedly gave her his personal phone number.
“I did not consent to this. I refused and told him to stop,” the woman wrote in the statement.
Almerhij says the “offers” did not stop there and that the officer also made threats. According to her testimony, the agent threatened to detain and deport her husband, Sam Wise, if she did not agree to his proposal. Wise is a legal U.S. resident who lives in Texas.
The woman explained that she did not report the alleged sexual assault while she was in the facility because she feared retaliation from the officer.
The couple had also previously raised concerns about conditions at the detention center, including eye care and the privacy of women held there. One complaint concerned the possibility of male staff members being able to see naked women.
According to DHS, the woman was detained by Border Patrol agents on Feb. 19, 2026. The department maintains that she entered the United States illegally in August 2024. Her husband said that before her detention she had been studying nursing at Texas A&M. On May 1, Almerhij was granted permission to leave the U.S. voluntarily, and she then traveled to Mexico. In October, the woman met with investigators from the DHS Office of Inspector General at the Mission, Texas, border crossing, where she handed them a 59-page handwritten journal describing her experiences at the ICE facility.
In response to Newsweek, a DHS spokesperson called the allegations of misconduct at the facility “false.” The spokesperson also said the department takes such accusations seriously and investigates them when there is reason to consider them credible.
Editor: JŁ
