FW: Children claim repeated sex abuse

Children claim  repeated sex abuse

Web Posted: 02/15/2008 10:58  PM CST
Hernán  Rozemberg
Express-News Immigration Writer  Nine immigrant children were repeatedly sexually molested and beaten  last year while housed in a government-operated youth detention center near  San Antonio, and their cries for help were covered up by administrators and  state and federal officials, according to a lawsuit filed Friday.  

Texas Sheltered Care in Nixon was among about three dozen facilities  across the country run by private firms under government contract to  temporarily house unaccompanied immigrant minors caught trying to cross the  border.
 

The Nixon center, 55 miles east of San Antonio, was shuttered nearly a  year ago after allegations of sexual abuse first surfaced. An investigation  initiated by the FBI but later punted to the Gonzales County Sheriff's  Department resulted in the prosecution and conviction of a guard, Belinda  Leal, who was sentenced in September to seven years in prison.
 

But the children, all Central Americans, and their advocates now say in a  lawsuit filed in federal court in San Antonio that the maltreatment was much  graver than Leal's actions. It accuses two other guards of sexual and  physical cruelty and says they engaged in a cover-up with their bosses and  state and federal officials.
 

Contacted for their response to the suit, some officials declined to  comment, saying they had not yet seen the document. Others didn't return  messages.
 

"These children are the most vulnerable and easily exploitable  immigrants," said José Garza, a lawyer for Texas RioGrande Legal Aid in San  Antonio, who is leading the case. "The government has shown a complete  disregard for their safety and well-being, and that's shameful."
 

The lawsuit alleges several of the children — identified only by their  initials because they're minors — were repeatedly fondled by Leal, while  others were forced to grope her and perform oral sex on her.
 

The suit accused two other guards — one identified as Efraen García, the  other unnamed — of beating the minors. On one occasion, according to the  suit, García in a drunken rage attacked a boy, throwing him against a door  and walls.
 

The suit cites a 16-year-old Honduran as the "whistleblower" in the case.  After rejecting Leal's sexual advances, the boy reported her to the center's  top administrators, the suit says.
 

But instead of supporting him, the administrators retaliated, causing him  to attempt suicide before he was transferred to more restrictive youth  centers in other states while his deportation case played out in immigration  court.
 

The lawsuit claims officials at the Department of Health and Human  Services, which is in charge of all the shelters, decided to transfer him  out of state as punishment and to cover up the problem.
 

Upon his return, they and other government officials arranged to lock him  up in the Guadalupe County Jail, the suit alleges, before finally  transferring him to the Abraxas Hector Garza Center in San Antonio, which  HHS quietly opened in August as a restrictive center.
 

The city is host to another center for minor immigrant detainees on the  West Side, run by Baptist Child & Family Services.
 

Other Nixon children also said they endured similar wrath for trying to  report abuse, including being kept without food and forced to sleep on the  floor, the lawsuit says. One also said he was kept in an adult immigration  detention center, though he was 15, before being sent to Nixon.
 

All the minors said that, even after asking, they were deprived of  mental, medical and dental care after their complaints. Also, they alleged,  in many cases officials purposely cut communication with their lawyers, who  complained about the transfer of their clients to centers in other states,  such as Michigan, without notice.
 

The move prompted Texas RioGrande Legal Aid to dispatch a lawyer across  the country to track them down to interview them.
 

Besides administrators at Nixon and HHS officials in Washington and South  Texas, the suit accuses state officials of negligence. Specifically named  are Carey Cockerell, Dianna Spiser and Joyce James, the top bosses at the  Texas Department of Family and Protective Services.
 

As the licensing agent, TDFPS didn't appropriately monitor the Nixon  center and failed to properly investigate and act on the abuse allegations,  such as revoking its license, the lawsuit says.
 

It says the level of disregard also put the center in violation of the  Flores Agreement, a long-standing court settlement under which the  government committed to maintain certain detention standards for immigrant  minors.
 

In a related but separate federal lawsuit filed in San Antonio in  September, two of the boys accused Guadalupe County Sheriff Glen Schtleben  of purposely leaving them in a legal lurch by refusing to provide a written  statement confirming their help in his investigation of Leal.
 

Such statements would allow unaccompanied minors to apply for immigration  visas letting them remain in the country legally and eventually obtain  permanent residence.
 

Garza, the legal aid lawyer who also headed this case, said a tentative  agreement was reached this week: The suit would be dropped in exchange for  the sheriff signing the cooperation statements.
 

 

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Web Posted: 02/15/2008 10:58  PM CST
Hernán  Rozemberg
Express-News Immigration Writer  Nine immigrant children were repeatedly sexually molested and beaten  last year while housed in a government-operated youth detention center near  San Antonio, and their cries for help were covered up by administrators and  state and federal officials, according to a lawsuit filed Friday.  

Texas Sheltered Care in Nixon was among about three dozen facilities  across the country run by private firms under government contract to  temporarily house unaccompanied immigrant minors caught trying to cross the  border.
 

The Nixon center, 55 miles east of San Antonio, was shuttered nearly a  year ago after allegations of sexual abuse first surfaced. An investigation  initiated by the FBI but later punted to the Gonzales County Sheriff's  Department resulted in the prosecution and conviction of a guard, Belinda  Leal, who was sentenced in September to seven years in prison.
 

But the children, all Central Americans, and their advocates now say in a  lawsuit filed in federal court in San Antonio that the maltreatment was much  graver than Leal's actions. It accuses two other guards of sexual and  physical cruelty and says they engaged in a cover-up with their bosses and  state and federal officials.
 

Contacted for their response to the suit, some officials declined to  comment, saying they had not yet seen the document. Others didn't return  messages.
 

"These children are the most vulnerable and easily exploitable  immigrants," said José Garza, a lawyer for Texas RioGrande Legal Aid in San  Antonio, who is leading the case. "The government has shown a complete  disregard for their safety and well-being, and that's shameful."
 

The lawsuit alleges several of the children — identified only by their  initials because they're minors — were repeatedly fondled by Leal, while  others were forced to grope her and perform oral sex on her.
 

The suit accused two other guards — one identified as Efraen García, the  other unnamed — of beating the minors. On one occasion, according to the  suit, García in a drunken rage attacked a boy, throwing him against a door  and walls.
 

The suit cites a 16-year-old Honduran as the "whistleblower" in the case.  After rejecting Leal's sexual advances, the boy reported her to the center's  top administrators, the suit says.
 

But instead of supporting him, the administrators retaliated, causing him  to attempt suicide before he was transferred to more restrictive youth  centers in other states while his deportation case played out in immigration  court.
 

The lawsuit claims officials at the Department of Health and Human  Services, which is in charge of all the shelters, decided to transfer him  out of state as punishment and to cover up the problem.
 

Upon his return, they and other government officials arranged to lock him  up in the Guadalupe County Jail, the suit alleges, before finally  transferring him to the Abraxas Hector Garza Center in San Antonio, which  HHS quietly opened in August as a restrictive center.
 

The city is host to another center for minor immigrant detainees on the  West Side, run by Baptist Child & Family Services.
 

Other Nixon children also said they endured similar wrath for trying to  report abuse, including being kept without food and forced to sleep on the  floor, the lawsuit says. One also said he was kept in an adult immigration  detention center, though he was 15, before being sent to Nixon.
 

All the minors said that, even after asking, they were deprived of  mental, medical and dental care after their complaints. Also, they alleged,  in many cases officials purposely cut communication with their lawyers, who  complained about the transfer of their clients to centers in other states,  such as Michigan, without notice.
 

The move prompted Texas RioGrande Legal Aid to dispatch a lawyer across  the country to track them down to interview them.
 

Besides administrators at Nixon and HHS officials in Washington and South  Texas, the suit accuses state officials of negligence. Specifically named  are Carey Cockerell, Dianna Spiser and Joyce James, the top bosses at the  Texas Department of Family and Protective Services.
 

As the licensing agent, TDFPS didn't appropriately monitor the Nixon  center and failed to properly investigate and act on the abuse allegations,  such as revoking its license, the lawsuit says.
 

It says the level of disregard also put the center in violation of the  Flores Agreement, a long-standing court settlement under which the  government committed to maintain certain detention standards for immigrant  minors.
 

In a related but separate federal lawsuit filed in San Antonio in  September, two of the boys accused Guadalupe County Sheriff Glen Schtleben  of purposely leaving them in a legal lurch by refusing to provide a written  statement confirming their help in his investigation of Leal.
 

Such statements would allow unaccompanied minors to apply for immigration  visas letting them remain in the country legally and eventually obtain  permanent residence.
 

Garza, the legal aid lawyer who also headed this case, said a tentative  agreement was reached this week: The suit would be dropped in exchange for  the sheriff signing the cooperation statements.