An
immigrant rights advocacy group has
filed a federal complaint accusing
the Department of Homeland Security
of failing to investigate thousands
of sexual assault allegations from
the country's immigrant detention
centers. (Source: AOL.com)
The
Shenandoah
Valley
Juvenile
Center
on
Wednesday,
June 20,
2018 in
Staunton,
Va.
Immigrant
children
as young
as 14
housed
at the
juvenile
detention
center
say they
were
beaten
while
handcuffed
and
locked
up for
long
periods
in
solitary
confinement,
left
nude and
shivering
in
concrete
cells.
The
abuse
claims
are
detailed
in
federal
court
filings
that
include
a
half-dozen
sworn
statements
from
Latino
teens
jailed
there
for
months
or
years.
(Photo:
Zachary
Wajsgras,
AP)
Young
immigrants
detained
in
Virginia
center
allege
abuse
By
MICHAEL
BIESECKER,
JAKE
PEARSON
and
GARANCE
BURKE
APNews.com
WASHINGTON
-
Immigrant
children
as young
as 14
housed
at a
juvenile
detention
center
in
Virginia
say they
were
beaten
while
handcuffed
and
locked
up for
long
periods
in
solitary
confinement,
left
nude and
shivering
in
concrete
cells.
The
abuse
claims
against
the
Shenandoah
Valley
Juvenile
Center
near
Staunton,
Virginia,
are
detailed
in
federal
court
filings
that
include
a
half-dozen
sworn
statements
from
Latino
teens
jailed
there
for
months
or
years.
Multiple
detainees
say the
guards
stripped
them of
their
clothes
and
strapped
them to
chairs
with
bags
placed
over
their
heads.
“Whenever
they
used to
restrain
me and
put me
in the
chair,
they
would
handcuff
me,”
said a
Honduran
immigrant
who was
sent to
the
facility
when he
was 15
years
old.
“Strapped
me down
all the
way,
from
your
feet all
the way
to your
chest,
you
couldn’t
really
move.
... They
have
total
control
over
you.
They
also put
a bag
over
your
head. It
has
little
holes;
you can
see
through
it. But
you feel
suffocated
with the
bag on.”
In
addition
to the
children’s
first-hand,
translated
accounts
in court
filings,
a former
child-development
specialist
who
worked
inside
the
facility
independently
told The
Associated
Press
this
week
that she
saw kids
there
with
bruises
and
broken
bones
they
blamed
on
guards.
She
spoke on
condition
of
anonymity
because
she was
not
authorized
to
publicly
discuss
the
children’s
cases.
In
court
filings,
lawyers
for the
detention
facility
have
denied
all
allegations
of
physical
abuse.
Many
of the
children
were
sent
there
after
U.S.
immigration
authorities
accused
them of
belonging
to
violent
gangs,
including
MS-13.
President
Donald
Trump
has
repeatedly
cited
gang
activity
as
justification
for his
crackdown
on
illegal
immigration.
Trump
said
Wednesday
that
“our
Border
Patrol
agents
and our
ICE
agents
have
done one
great
job”
cracking
down on
MS-13
gang
members.
“We’re
throwing
them out
by the
thousands,”
he said.
But
a top
manager
at the
Shenandoah
center
said
during a
recent
congressional
hearing
that the
children
did not
appear
to be
gang
members
and were
suffering
from
mental
health
issues
resulting
from
trauma
that
happened
in their
home
countries
—
problems
the
detention
facility
is
ill-equipped
to
treat.
“The
youth
were
being
screened
as
gang-involved
individuals.
And then
when
they
came
into our
care,
and they
were
assessed
by our
clinical
and case
management
staff
... they
weren’t
necessarily
identified
as
gang-involved
individuals,”
said
Kelsey
Wong, a
program
director
at the
facility.
She
testified
April 26
before a
Senate
subcommittee
reviewing
the
treatment
of
immigrant
children
apprehended
by the
Homeland
Security
Department.
Most
children
held in
the
Shenandoah
facility
who were
the
focus of
the
abuse
lawsuit
were
caught
crossing
the
border
illegally
alone.
They
were not
the
children
who have
been
separated
from
their
families
under
the
Trump
administration’s
recent
policy
and are
now in
the
government’s
care.
But the
facility
there
operates
under
the same
program
run by
the U.S.
Office
of
Refugee
Resettlement.
It was
not
immediately
clear
whether
any
separated
children
have
been
sent to
Shenandoah
Valley
since
the
Trump
administration
in April
announced
its
“zero
tolerance”
policy
toward
immigrant
families,
after
the
lawsuit
was
filed.
The
Shenandoah
lockup
is one
of only
three
juvenile
detention
facilities
in the
United
States
with
federal
contracts
to
provide
“secure
placement”
for
children
who had
problems
at
less-restrictive
housing.
The Yolo
County
Juvenile
Detention
Facility
in
California
has
faced
litigation
over
immigrant
children
mischaracterized
as gang
members.
In
Alexandria,
Virginia,
a board
overseeing
the
Northern
Virginia
Juvenile
Detention
Center
voted
this
week to
end its
contract
to house
federal
immigration
detainees,
bowing
to
public
pressure.
The
Shenandoah
detention
center
was
built by
a
coalition
of seven
nearby
towns
and
counties
to lock
up local
kids
charged
with
serious
crimes.
Since
2007,
about
half the
58 beds
are
occupied
by both
male and
female
immigrants
between
the ages
of 12
and 17
facing
deportation
proceedings
or
awaiting
rulings
on
asylum
claims.
Though
incarcerated
in a
facility
similar
to a
prison,
the
children
detained
on
administrative
immigration
charges
have not
yet been
convicted
of any
crime.
Virginia
ranks
among
the
worst
states
in the
nation
for wait
times in
federal
immigration
courts,
with an
average
of 806
days
before a
ruling.
Nationally,
only
about
half of
juveniles
facing
deportation
are
represented
by a
lawyer,
according
to
Justice
Department
data.
On
average,
92
immigrant
children
each
year
cycle
through
Shenandoah,
most of
them
from
Mexico
and
Central
America.
Wong
said
many of
the 30
or so
children
housed
there on
any
given
day have
mental
health
needs
that
would be
better
served
in a
residential
treatment
unit.
But such
facilities
are
often
unwilling
to
accept
children
with
significant
behavioral
issues,
she
said.
Wong
and
other
managers
at the
Shenandoah
center,
including
Executive
Director
Timothy
J.
Smith,
did not
respond
to phone
and
email
messages
seeking
comment
this
week. A
city
manager
on the
local
commission
that
oversees
the
facility
referred
questions
to an
official
at the
Refugee
Resettlement
agency,
who did
not
respond
to a
phone
message.
Financial
statements
reviewed
by AP
shows
the
local
government
commission
that
operates
the
center
received
nearly
$4.2
million
in
federal
funds
last
year to
house
the
immigrant
children
— enough
to cover
about
two-thirds
of the
total
operating
expenses.
The
lawsuit
filed
against
Shenandoah
alleges
that
young
Latino
immigrants
held
there
“are
subjected
to
unconstitutional
conditions
that
shock
the
conscience,
including
violence
by
staff,
abusive
and
excessive
use of
seclusion
and
restraints,
and the
denial
of
necessary
mental
health
care.”
The
complaint
filed by
the
nonprofit
Washington
Lawyers’
Committee
for
Civil
Rights
and
Urban
Affairs
recounts
the
story of
an
unnamed
17-year-old
Mexican
citizen
apprehended
at the
southern
border.
The teen
fled an
abusive
father
and
violence
fueled
by drug
cartels
to seek
asylum
in the
United
States
in 2015.
After
stops at
facilities
in Texas
and New
York, he
was
transferred
to
Shenandoah
in April
2016 and
diagnosed
during
an
initial
screening
by a
psychologist
with
three
mental
disorders,
including
depression.
Besides
weekly
sessions
speaking
with a
counselor,
the
lawsuit
alleges
the teen
has
received
no
further
mental
health
treatment,
such as
medications
that
might
help
regulate
his
moods
and
behavior.
The
lawsuit
recounts
multiple
alleged
violent
incidents
between
Latino
children
and
staff at
the
Shenandoah
center.
It
describes
the
guards
as
mostly
white,
non-Spanish
speakers
who are
undertrained
in
dealing
with
individuals
with
mental
illness.
The suit
alleges
staff
members
routinely
taunt
the
Latino
youths
with
racially
charged
epithets,
including
“wetback,”
″onion
head”
and
“pendejo,”
which
roughly
translates
to
dumbass
in
Spanish.
A
16-year-old
who said
he had
lived in
Texas
with his
mother
since he
was an
infant
ended up
at
Shenandoah
in
September
after a
police
officer
pulled
over a
car he
was
riding
in and
asked
for ID,
which he
couldn’t
provide.
As one
of the
few
Latino
kids who
is
fluent
in
English,
the teen
would
translate
for
other
detainees
the
taunts
and
names
the
staff
members
were
calling
them. He
said
that
angered
the
guards,
resulting
in his
losing
such
modest
privileges
as
attending
art
classes.
“If
you are
behaving
bad,
resisting
the
staff
when
they try
to
remove
you from
the
program,
they
will
take
everything
in your
room
away —
your
mattress,
blanket,
everything,”
he said.
“They
will
also
take
your
clothes.
Then
they
will
leave
you
locked
in there
for a
while.
This has
happened
to me,
and I
know it
has
happened
to other
kids,
too.”
The
immigrant
detainees
said
they
were
largely
segregated
from the
mostly
white
juveniles
being
held on
criminal
charges,
but they
could
see that
the
other
housing
units
had
amenities
that
included
plush
chairs
and
video
gaming
consoles
not
available
in the
Spartan
pods
housing
the
Latinos.
In
their
sworn
statements,
the
teens
reported
spending
the bulk
of their
days
locked
alone in
their
cells,
with a
few
hours
set
aside
for
classroom
instruction,
recreation
and
meals.
Some
said
they had
never
been
allowed
outdoors,
while
the
U.S.-born
children
were
afforded
a
spacious
recreation
yard.
The
Latino
children
reported
being
fed
sparse
and
often
cold
meals
that
left
them
hungry,
though
meals of
American
fast
food
were
occasionally
provided.
Records
show
Shenandoah
receives
nearly
$82,000
a year
from the
Agriculture
Department
to feed
the
immigration
detainees.
The
lawsuit
said the
poor
conditions,
frequent
physical
searches
and
verbal
abuse by
staff
often
escalated
into
confrontations,
as the
frustrated
children
acted
out. The
staff
regularly
responded
“by
physically
assaulting
the
youth,
applying
an
excessive
amount
of force
that
goes far
beyond
what is
needed
to
establish
or
regain
control.”
In
the case
of the
Mexican
17-year-old,
the
lawsuit
said a
staff
member
who
suspected
him of
possessing
contraband
threw
him to
the
ground
and
forcibly
tore off
his
clothes
for an
impromptu
strip
search.
Though
no
forbidden
items
were
found,
the
teenager
was
transferred
to
“Alpha
Pod,”
described
in the
lawsuit
as a
unit
within
the
facility
designated
for
children
who
engage
in bad
behavior.
The
lawsuit
said
Latino
children
were
frequently
punished
by being
restrained
for
hours in
chairs,
with
handcuffs
and
cloth
shackles
on their
legs.
Often,
the
lawsuit
alleged,
the
children
were
beaten
by staff
while
bound.
As a
result
of such
“malicious
and
sadistic
applications
of
force,”
the
immigrant
youths
have
“sustained
significant
injuries,
both
physical
and
psychological,”
the
lawsuit
said.
After an
altercation
during
which
the
lawsuit
alleged
the
Mexican
teenager
bit a
staff
member
during a
beating,
he was
restrained
in
handcuffs
and
shackles
for 10
days,
resulting
in
bruises
and
cuts.
Other
teens
interviewed
as part
of the
court
case
also
reported
being
punished
for
minor
infractions
with
stints
in
solitary
confinement,
during
which
some of
the
children
said
they
were
left
nude and
shivering
in cold
concrete
cells.
Academic
studies
of
prison
inmates
kept in
solitary
confinement
have
found
they
often
experience
high
anxiety
that can
cause
panic
attacks,
paranoia
and
disordered
thinking
that may
trigger
angry
outbursts.
For
those
with
mental
health
issues,
the
effects
can be
exacerbated,
often
worsening
the very
behaviors
the
staff is
attempting
to
discourage.
A
Guatemalan
youth
sent to
the
center
when he
was 14
years
old said
he was
often
locked
in his
tiny
cell for
up to 23
hours a
day.
After
resisting
the
guards,
he said
he was
also
restrained
for long
periods.
“When
they
couldn’t
get one
of the
kids to
calm
down,
the
guards
would
put us
in a
chair —
a safety
chair, I
don’t
know
what
they
call it
— but
they
would
just put
us in
there
all
day,”
the teen
said in
a sworn
statement.
“This
happened
to me,
and I
saw it
happen
to
others,
too. It
was
excessive.”
A
15-year-old
from
Mexico
held at
Shenandoah
for nine
months
also
recounted
being
restrained
with a
bag over
his
head.
“They
handcuffed
me and
put a
white
bag of
some
kind
over my
head,”
he said,
according
to his
sworn
statement.
“They
took off
all of
my
clothes
and put
me into
a
restraint
chair,
where
they
attached
my hands
and feet
to the
chair.
They
also put
a strap
across
my
chest.
They
left me
naked
and
attached
to that
chair
for two
and a
half
days,
including
at
night.”
After
being
subjected
to such
treatment,
the
17-year-old
Mexican
youth
said he
tried to
kill
himself
in
August,
only to
be
punished
with
further
isolation.
On other
occasions,
he said,
he has
responded
to
feelings
of
desperation
and
hopelessness
by
cutting
his
wrists
with a
piece of
glass
and
banging
his head
against
the wall
or
floor.
“One
time I
cut
myself
after I
had
gotten
into a
fight
with
staff,”
the teen
recounted.
“I
filled
the room
with
blood.
This
happened
on a
Friday,
but it
wasn’t
until
Monday
that
they
gave me
a
bandage
or
medicine
for the
pain.”
The
lawsuit
alleges
other
immigrant
youths
held at
Shenandoah
have
also
engaged
in
cutting
and
other
self-harming
behaviors,
including
ingesting
shampoo
and
attempting
to choke
themselves.
A
hearing
in the
case is
set for
July 3
before a
federal
judge in
the
Western
District
of
Virginia.
Lawyers
on both
sides in
the
lawsuit
either
did not
respond
to
messages
or
declined
to
comment,
citing
strict
confidentiality
requirements
in the
case
involving
children.
The
child
development
specialist
who
previously
worked
with
teens at
Shenandoah
told AP
that
many
there
developed
severe
psychological
problems
after
experiencing
abuse
from
guards.
“The
majority
of the
kids we
worked
with
when we
went to
visit
them
were
emotionally
and
verbally
abused.
I had a
kid
whose
foot was
broken
by a
guard,”
she
said.
“They
would
get put
in
isolation
for
months
for
things
like
picking
up a
pencil
when a
guard
had said
not to
move.
Some of
them
started
hearing
voices
that
were
telling
them to
hurt
people
or hurt
themselves,
and I
knew
when
they had
gotten
to
Shenandoah
they
were not
having
any
violent
thoughts.”
She
said she
never
witnessed
staff
abuse
teens
first-hand,
but that
teens
would
complain
to her
of
injuries
from
being
tackled
by
guards
and
reveal
bruises.
The
specialist
encouraged
them to
file a
formal
complaint.
Though
lawyers
for
Shenandoah
responded
with
court
filings
denying
all
wrongdoing,
information
contained
in a
separate
2016
lawsuit
appears
to
support
some of
the
information
contained
in the
recent
abuse
complaints.
In a
wrongful
termination
lawsuit
filed
against
the
Shenandoah
center,
a former
staff
member
said he
worked
in unit
called
“Alpha
Pod”
where
immigrant
minors
were
held,
“including
those
with
psychological
and
mental
issues
and
those
who tend
to fight
more
frequently.”
The
guard,
Trenton
Farris,
who
denied
claims
that he
punched
two
children,
sued the
justice
center
alleging
he was
wrongly
targeted
for
firing
because
he is
black.
Farris
said
most
staff
members
at the
facility
are
white,
and that
two
white
staff
members
involved
in the
incident
over
which he
was
fired
went
unpunished.
Lawyers
for the
center
denied
the
former
guard’s
claims,
and the
case was
settled
in
January.