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'No comment' from Va. detention center after alleged abuse claims

A federal lawsuit accused staff of handcuffing, beating and stripping immigrant children naked, forcing them to stay for hours nude and shivering in cold cells.

STAUNTON, VA -- WUSA9 tried to get inside the Shenandoah Valley Juvenile Center on Thursday after shocking allegations of abuse, but the news crew was turned away and given a “no comment,” by Paul McCormick, Secure Manager.

The center in Staunton, Va. houses males and females ages 10 to 17, both juvenile delinquents and immigrant children.

A federal lawsuit accused staff of handcuffing, beating and stripping immigrant children naked, forcing them to stay for hours nude and shivering in cold cells. The alleged abuse happened in 2015 and 2016.

RELATED: Young immigrants detained in Virginia center allege abuse

Virginia governor Ralph Northam has ordered an investigation.

The lawsuit includes several sworn statements from teenagers who say the guards stripped them naked, strapped them to chairs and put bags over their heads.

A Honduran teenager who was 15 when he came to the center said the following:

“Whenever they used to restrain me and put me in the chair, they would handcuff me. Strapped me down all the way, from your feet all the way to your chest, you couldn’t really move...They have total control over you. They also put a bag over your head. It has little holes; you can see through it. But you feel suffocated with the bag on.”

A 16-year-old from Texas said the following about the center:

“If you are behaving bad, resisting the staff when they try to remove you from the program, they will take everything in your room away — your mattress, blanket, everything...They will also take your clothes. Then they will leave you locked in there for a while. This has happened to me, and I know it has happened to other kids, too.”

RELATED: "Tender-age" children from border held at Virginia home for troubled kids

The lawsuit alleges that children who were depressed or suicidal were further harmed.

In one case the lawsuits reads, “when a child once attempted to choke himself, staff took all of his clothes away, including his underwear, and confined him to his room, naked, for more than eight hours....He receive no other treatment."

It also accuses staff of routinely insulting, taunting and harassing the immigrant youth detained at the facility based on their language, race, and or national origin.

People who live in and around the historic town of Staunton had no idea immigrant children were detained here. They’re shocked at the allegations.

“It’s sickening. This isn’t who America is,” said a 20-year-old Staunton woman.

Most immigrant children at the Staunton facility were caught crossing the border alone. They are not the children who have been separated from their families under the Trump administration’s recent policy.

The U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement runs the program. It’s one of only three juvenile detention facilities in the United States with federal contracts for children who had problems at less-restrictive housing.

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