A father who was separated from his son after attempting to cross the US border says the ten-year-old boy was drugged and sexually assaulted while in US custody.
The Guatemalan man, identified in the lawsuit as J.E.B, is suing two shelters for migrant children, claiming that staff “acted with fraud, malice and gross neglect” in the treatment of his son, identified as F.C.B.
After the father and son were detained by immigration officials in February 2018, the child was sent to the migrant shelter for unaccompanied minors in Arizona operated by non-profit Southwest Key.
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In June, he was moved to the Shiloh Treatment Center in Texas after being diagnosed with “adjustment disorder”, the Austin American Statesman reports.
The lawsuit alleges that F.C.B was detained there for more than six months “without legal authority or justification” and forced to take psychotropic medication without parental consent.
Specifically, the lawsuit says that the boy was given Lexapro, an antidepressant, and Risperidone, an anti-psychotic commonly used to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
In December 2018, he was allegedly sexually assaulted by another detained child at the facility.
The lawsuit claims that prior to this incident there had been “no consideration of discharge”, despite the boy’s “repeated requests” to join his father, who had been returned to Guatemala.
“After the sexual assault was reported, however, he was viewed as a potential liability, and quickly deported,” say the court documents.
The family are suing for damages for “pain, emotional distress and medical expenses”, says CNN. The Austin American Statesman reports that the plaintiffs are also seeking a jury trial.
The US Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families said that it was unable to comment on individual cases. The Shiloh Treatment Center also declined to comment.
A spokesman for Southwest Key said he could not comment on specific allegations, but stressed that the organisation was “federally regulated and state licensed” to take care of unaccompanied minors.
“We are not a detention facility and our organisation’s opposition to the separation of families at the border has never wavered,” he added.
The two facilities are among more than 100 shelters in 17 states contracted to provide accommodation for underage undocumented migrants on behalf of the US government, CNN reports.
Children held at Shiloh and similar facilities have described “wide-ranging abuses”, including allegations of being “forcibly medicated, assaulted, and restrained for long periods”.
Between 2014 and 2018, the US Department of Health and Human Services received more than 4,500 allegations of sexual assault against unaccompanied minors in government custody, CBS reports.