Prosecution: 10 years, drugged, assaulted in the United States

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Father and son identified in the trial as J.E.B. and F.C.B., allege that US officials forcibly separated them at the border in February 2018. From there, according to the trial, F.C.B. was first placed in the care of a migrant shelter managed by Southwest Key in Arizona, and later transferred to the Shiloh treatment center in Manvel, Texas.

The lawsuit alleges that the two institutions "acted with fraud, malice and gross negligence" and that the staff of both institutions physically assaulted F.C.B. In the Texas offices, the lawsuit says the boy "received a dose of potent psychotropic drugs without the consent of his parents." He was also sexually assaulted by another child detained during the last weeks of his detention in Shiloh.

The boy and his father were both deported last year, according to the lawsuit, claiming damages for the pain, emotional distress and medical expenses they would have suffered.

Previous reports of abuse

Evelyn Stauffer, a spokeswoman for the Child and Family Administration of the US Department of Health and Human Services, declined to comment.

"We do not comment on ongoing litigation or individual cases for confidentiality reasons," Stauffer said in an email.

A spokesman for Southwest Key declined to comment on certain allegations.

"We are an accredited provider of accommodation services in unaccompanied minors' shelters.We are not a detention center and our organization's opposition to the separation of families to the The border has never faltered, and this policy has hurt children, parents and our communities, "said Southwest Keynote Critic Neil Nowlin. "After the closing arguments, it seems that none of the serious allegations made in this case occurred in our shelter, so we can not comment on them."

A representative from the Shiloh Treatment Center could not be contacted immediately for comment.

CNN had previously reported widespread abuse in Shiloh and other institutions described by children in sworn affidavits. These cases included cases of children undergoing forced medication, assaulted and immobilized for long periods, among other allegations.
Handcuffs, assaults and drugs called

In July, US District Judge Dolly Gee ordered the government to obtain "informed written consent" from a parent, family member or sponsor. , or court order, before giving children to Shiloh, psychotropic drugs. Shiloh's staff admitted to signing the consent forms themselves before systematically drugging the children, noted Gee in his decision at the time.

Psychotropic drugs are used to treat clinical psychiatric symptoms and mental disorders, and may include antidepressants, sedatives and antipsychotics, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

In response to this court order, Shiloh said in a statement posted on its website that "many regulators and supervisors have concluded that allegations specifically about Shiloh are unfounded".

"The judge's decision simply confirms what is already the law, and Shiloh is in agreement," Shiloh said at the time. "Children should not be forced to stay in a safer place than necessary and they should not be given drugs without their consent."

Boy was "considered an asset", says the lawsuit

The lawsuit, which was filed in a Texas court last week, alleges that F.C.B. was misdiagnosed in detention and Shiloh's staff forced him to take the Lexapro and Risperdal psychotropic substances without parental permission and was detained for nearly a year "without authorization or legal justification".

"Despite his repeated requests to return home with his father and grandmother, his release was not seriously considered," the trial said, saying the boy was "considered an asset" by Shiloh because the institution was paid daily to keep him in detention. .

The prosecution claimed that this changed after the boy was sexually assaulted by another child in custody.

"After the sexual assault was reported (…), it was considered a potential liability and quickly expelled," says the lawsuit.

The lawsuit does not provide details about the alleged assault, but indicates that a social worker at the institution informed the boy's attorney.

Last month, a US congressman released internal agency documents showing that unaccompanied minors imprisoned by the government had filed more than 4,500 complaints of sexual violence between 2014 and 2018.

HHS documents show thousands of incidents of alleged sexual abuse of unaccompanied minors in detention
"I am deeply concerned by documents submitted by the HHS that report a high number of sexual assaults on unaccompanied children in the custody of the Office of Refugee Protection and the resettlement, "said Florida Democratic Representative Ted Deutch, during a highly publicized visit. hearing on the "zero tolerance" policy of the Trump administration, which led to the separation of thousands of immigrant children from their parents.

Jonathan Hayes, acting director of the Office for Refugee Resettlement, later accused Deutch of knowingly misinterpreting the data, claiming any claim that office staff would have been the object of Abuse would be "totally false".

The vast majority of reported incidents involved unaccompanied minors, Hayes said. There have been 178 alleged cases of sexual abuse involving minor misconduct by school staff over the last four years, he said, noting that these employees were not not employees of the federal government.

Bob Ortega of CNN contributed to this report.

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