Facility Holding Immigrant Kids Forcing Drug Injections: Reports

MANVEL, TX — Immigrant children being detained at the Shiloh Treatment Center are facing myriad health and mental problems after being forcibly injected with medications, according to accusations. Affidavits filed in the U.S. District Court in California claim kids were held down and injected.

The legal filings said the kids were "dizzy, listless, obese and even incapacitated," the Texas Tribune reports, adding that the kids were told they would not be released or allowed to see their parents until they got the injections, which they were told were vitamins.

Under President Trump's "zero tolerance" policy, over $1.5 billion in taxpayer money has been given to private companies which have been accused of “serious lapses in care, including neglect and sexual and physical abuse,” while holding confined immigrant children, according to Quartz.

The accusations are grim. One mother said the injections made her daughter fall repeatedly, hitting her head and requiring a wheelchair. Another child said she tried to open a window, but was thrown against a door by a Shiloh employee and choked until she fainted, the Tribune reports.

Patch's request for comment from Shiloh Treatment Center was forwarded to the Department of Health and Human Services, which did not immediately reply.

A 2008 lawsuit stopped the U.S. government from forcibly giving deportees antipsychotic drugs. Psychiatrist Mark Mills said “You don’t have to be a rocket scientist here; it looks like they’re trying to control agitation and aggressive behavior with antipsychotic drugs,” according to the Tribune.

Documents obtained by the Center for Investigative Reporting show that children at Shiloh had been put on up to eight medications at one time, often several types of antipsychotics.

See the documents obtained by the Center for Investigative Reporting here.

“You don’t need to administer these kinds of drugs unless someone is plucking out their eyeball or some such. The facility should not use these drugs to control behavior. That’s not what antipsychotics should be used for. That’s like the old Soviet Union used to do.”

See more:

• Listen To Voices Of The Children Separated From Parents At Border
• Texas Could Soon House 'Tent Cities' For Migrant Kids: Report
• Migrant Children Could Be Detained In Houston Warehouse

Another facility for holding undocumented children separated from their parents is standing up in Houston, according to reports. Southwest Key Programs, the contractor already running a confinement facility in South Texas, is leasing a warehouse in downtown Houston.

First lady Melania Trump visited a detention center in McAllen Thursday.

The Shiloh Treatment Center is at 3926 Bahler Ave. in Manvel:

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