A lawsuit filed by the Center for Human Rights & Constitutional Law alleges that immigrant children are being forcibly given psychotropic drugs. USA TODAY
Migrant children suffered physical abuse, including forced injections of psychotropic drugs, at private youth shelters contracted by the U.S. government to house undocumented minors, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court by a human rights organization.
The lawsuit alleges that the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement “routinely” places migrant children on psychotropic drugs without parental consent and without telling the kids about the medication “in utter disregard of state laws.”
The lawsuit against Attorney General Jeff Sessions was filed April 16 in U.S. District Court in California by the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law after Sessions announced the administration’s “zero tolerance” policy on undocumented immigrants. But many of the allegations in the filing date back to unaccompanied minors who crossed the southern border during the Obama administration, long before immigration officials began systematically separating migrant families.
Children said they were given as many as 18 pills a day and often were not told what the medication was for. Included among the drugs administered to the children were antidepressant, anti-anxiety, antipsychotic medications such as Clonazepam, Divalproex, Duloxetine, Lithium and Geodon.
If the children refused the medications they would be punished or physically forced to take them, according to the lawsuit.
Julio, a boy who was held at the Shiloh Treatment Center in Texas, which specializes in treating kids with behavioral or emotional problems, said he saw staff members hold another child down, pry his mouth open and force pills into his mouth. Julio said he was told…
