Suit alleges mistreatment of unaccompanied minors at detention center

On the federal government's behalf, Cornell Companies Inc.'s Hector Garza Center in San Antonio  detains minors apprehended by the U.S. government after they immigrated illegally without their parents. It's also a place where teenage detainees are allegedly beaten and sent to other facilities when they try to meet with legal aid attorneys, according to a suit filed by two 18-year-old former detainees, an attorney and a priest. The latter two are suing on behalf of six minors who are in or have been in the facility. In Fabian, et al. v. Dunn, filed April 2 in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, the plaintiffs are suing Cornell, directors and guards at the facility, federal government officials and the San Antonio police. "[R]ampant physical abuse at the Abraxas facility is open and notorious," the suit states. "[T]he Defendants have lost control of the Abraxas facility and the Plaintiffs and other children are at all times in danger of imminent and serious bodily harm." The suit claims that: a guard tackled a 17-year-old boy who did not immediate get up when ordered, because he was engaged in prayer, then later gave the teen a black eye; a teacher "severely battered" a 16-year-old boy after he whispered in class; guards later put the same boy in a half nelson after he tried to defend another boy who was being beaten, the punched him repeatedly in the back until he lost consciousness; guards assaulted a 15-year-old boy, leaving him with an arm injury that needed treatment at a hospital; and three guards beat a 17-year-old, forcing "his hands high above his back, causing excruciating pain." According to the suit, one boy stated that he was "so traumatized by these events that he once stated that although he wishes to remain in the United States, he would rather be deported than remain at the Abraxas center." The suit also claims that the center transfers children to other facilities in Indiana and elsewhere when they attempt to meet with legal aid attorneys. The plaintiffs allege that the defendants are violating the 1996 Flores v. Reno settlement agreement that sets requirements for daily care, protection, education, medical assistance and other humanitarian services to be provided by the United States to all unaccompanied minors. The plaintiffs in their suit seek an injunction requiring compliance with Flores.
-- Jonathan Fox