Traumatized Children Drugged Without Consent at US Immigrant Shelters: Report

Authorities at the United States immigrant shelters have been drugging teenagers in distress without their consent, an investigation by ProPublica has revealed.

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Last month, lawyers for five immigrant children under the age of 18 filed a class-action lawsuit after they were over-medicated without consent in Los Angeles' Federal Court against Alex Azar, the head of the US Health & Human Services, HHS, and Scott Lloyd, director of the Office of the Refugee Settlement (ORR).   

ProPublica's investigative report noted, "Emotional distress and mental health issues are prevalent among these children, sometimes a result of traumatic experiences in their home countries, at other times triggered by being separated from parents at the border, or by fear that they will never be released from ORR facilities." 

"Under most states’ laws, before a child is medicated, a parent, guardian, or authority acting in the place of the parent — such as a court-appointed guardian ad litem — must be consulted and give informed consent," the ProPublica report noted. 

In the shelters, these children are left alone, with no parental guidance or information. And the shelter staff often coax the children to take these medications, without seeking court approval.  

"These medications do not come cost-free to children with growing brains and growing bodies — psychotropic medications have a substantial cost to a child’s present and future," Dr. Amy Cohen, a psychiatrist who has been volunteering in border shelters told the ProPublica. "A person whose sole concern is, what is in the best interest of a child — a parent or a guardian ad litem — that role is desperately needed now." 

Former shelter employees, doctors, and lawyers working for advocacy groups have told the investigative site the shelters lack sufficient counselors to deal with children's emotional needs. 

"16-year-old Daniela became suicidal after being separated from an older sister who accompanied her from Honduras to the United States border. She has been given Prozac, Abilify, Clonidine, Risperdal, Seroquel and Zyprexa in various shelters as staff have been unable to settle on a diagnosis, detecting at different times bipolar disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, PTSD, and major depressive disorder. Her older sister was released from custody and allowed to stay in the United States, but wasn’t consulted about whether Daniela should take those medications, which have side effects including weight gain, uncontrolled spasms, and increased suicide risk," the ProPublica statement noted. 

The HHS that also includes ORR, however, "declined to comment when asked how it handles informed consent and how many children in its shelters were on psychotropic medications. When asked about its mental health policies, HHS sent a link to its policy guide, which says, without further elaboration, that shelters must provide “appropriate mental health interventions when necessary," according to ProPublica. 

"ORR doesn’t "have the best interest of these children in mind. There has to be court oversight," Holly Cooper, co-director of the Immigration Law Clinic at the University of California, Davis, told ProPublica. 

Cohen who works with advocacy groups at shelters on the border said the immigrant teenagers talk about pressure tactics used to induce them to take the pill. 

One teenage girl told Cohen that she didn’t want to take anti-depressants, but since she was told that she'd lose shelter privileges like going to a nearby park, she was forced to take them. 

A teenage boy also told Cohen about the grim conditions under which he was forced to take shelter-prescribed pills. 

"He wasn’t told what symptoms were being treated or what side effects he should expect,” said Cohen. Instead, he was informed that if he didn’t take his pills, "he couldn’t get out of there," she said, per ProPublica. 

A separate ongoing lawsuit in the same court against the Department of Justice has been filed for inappropriately medicating immigrant minors as young as 11 years old, violating standards established in a 1997 legal settlement.   

The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement has nearly 12,000 undocumented minors in custody. A majority of them crossed the border unaccompanied, while over 2,500 were separated from their parents since Trump’s "zero tolerance" policy came in effect from April to June.