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U.S. Family Values : Immigrant Children Beaten in Detention

12:30 H | Topics: Children - Immigration - Justice

Earlier today I wrote about the U.S. is itching to build more immigrant family detention facilities. Besides the denying of basic rights that we have seen going on in such facilities, not surprisingly there is outright physical violence on top of the violence of detention, with minors as the victims.

A new lawsuit filed against a private contractor who runs an immigrant child detention center claims nine teenagers were beaten and abused by employees who work for Cornell Companies. The company has been cited by immigration officials for safety problems in the past. The Hector Garza facility in San Antonio handles young immigrant “males with serious behavioral and psychological impairments”.
“I think the general American has no idea these kids even exist,” said Susan Watson, Texas RioGrande Legal Aid attorney for the nine plaintiffs, “When our own government treats them this way, they deserve their day in court,” she said.

So no only were these teenagers beaten (conveniently by contractors, not U.S. officials so that the country can claim clean hands), but they may have psychological problems. These are young people who are separated from their families. Young people crossing the border without their parents, maybe looking to meet up with parents who were already inside the U.S.

One of the plaintiffs is described in court documents as a 16-year-old Honduran male identified as C.C. Arriving at the border alone, C.C. was put into custody for a week by Border Patrol agents. He was later transferred to the Hector Garza Center, where court filings claim a teacher “severely battered C.C. punching and kicking him, then beating him with a chair as he lay on the floor.”

Via / Hermana Resist, CBS News

Related

• ICE Planning to Build Three More Family Detention Centers (Tuesday, May 20 2008)
• Juan Luis Guerra Announces La Travesia U.S. Tour (Monday, May 19 2008)