MIAMI – At an immigration detention center for children, a 14-year-old boy who had "violent episodes" sent an 11-year-old boy to the hospital, after causing him to hit his head against a metal bed, a lawsuit filed in the Southern District of Florida in Miami claims.
Despite the head injury, the boy didn't undergo any scans or get pain medication, according to the negligence lawsuit filed on behalf of the 11-year-old boy's mother, Otilia Asig-Putul, an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala.
Asig-Putul, who is applying for asylum, is living in Miami. She claims that despite her son's injury the detention center's employees, of Heartland Human Care Services Inc., didn't make an effort to protect her son from the 14-year-old attacker.
Immigration authorities separated Asig-Putul and her son on May 9 at the U.S.-Mexico border, near San Luis, Arizona, the lawsuit says. Attorneys from Nexus Derechos Humanos are representing Asig-Putul, who is seeing pain and suffering damages.
Nexus Derechos Humanos is associated with Verona-based Nexus Services. Nexus's Libre, an immigration bond services company that was accused of preying on detained immigrants in Virginia, New York and Washington state.