Refugees Claim Mistreatment by INS Guards : Immigration: Allegations include reports of beatings. Officials will turn over complaints to an independent agency.

Fifteen Latin American refugees filed claims against the Immigration and Naturalization Service on Tuesday, alleging that they were beaten, kicked and mistreated by their federal guards.

The claims, filed as a necessary step before a federal lawsuit, seek $15 million in damages. Most of the alleged abuses occurred at detention centers in El Centro and Imperial and involved 10 INS guards. Two minors are among the aliens making the claims.

Peter A. Schey, attorney for the 15 alleged victims and executive director of Los Angeles-based Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, said his clients’ testimony reveals a “persistent pattern of brutality and abuse” by INS guards.

“Instead of finding safe haven here, they (the aliens) have been met by a U.S. government . . . that violated their physical integrity and mental well-being,” Schey said at a news conference. “We cannot tolerate government employees treating refugee detainees as if they are worse than prisoners of war.”

INS spokeswoman Virginia Kice said the allegations would be turned over for investigation to the Office of the Inspector General, a Justice Department agency that is independent of the INS. She declined further comment.

In written statements and in interviews, the 15 aliens said they were beaten and kicked by INS agents, denied adequate medical care, handcuffed or shackled arbitrarily and frequently placed in an isolation cell, known as el hoyo (the pit), for punishment.

Salvadoran William Garcia Ramos was 16 when he was picked up by INS agents on June 4 after crossing the border illegally into Arizona. He said he had fled his home of Sesuntepeque because of fears he would be forced to fight in the Salvadoran civil war and because his family was too poor to support him.

Held at the detention facility for minors in Imperial, Garcia said INS agents accused him of planning an escape, threw him against a wall several times during questioning, and slapped his face.

“I said nothing because I didn’t know what they were talking about,” Garcia said, adding that he was threatened with more severe beatings if he did not apologize to his guards. Eventually, he said he was placed in solitary confinement.

Moris Anibal Gonzalez Centeno, a 20-year-old Salvadoran, was detained in May and sent to the INS facility in El Centro, where he claims he was repeatedly shoved and hit in the ribs, shoulder and mouth by an INS agent. The alleged treatment left his face bloody and his arms immobile, he said.

“There are many like me who are mistreated but they say nothing out of fear” of reprisals from guards, Gonzalez Centeno said.

In another claim, Rigoberto Cabezas, a Nicaraguan who is being held at the El Centro facility pending deportation, said he was beaten after he spoke to an immigrants rights attorney.

The officer that beat him, Cabezas said, locked him in a bathroom and then approached him wearing surgical gloves. He accused Cabezas of being a “troublemaker” and then punched him several times in the stomach, Cabezas said in a written declaration.

“He then threw me against the shower wall,” Cabezas stated. “He proceeded to punch me again in my right ribs and tried to provoke me with ‘Come on . . . hit me.’ I believed (the officer) was punching me in soft spots so as to not leave bruises.

“He continued to punch me several times more when I suddenly slipped on some water on the floor. He left me on the floor.”

The government has six months to investigate the claims filed Tuesday. If the response is unsatisfactory, Schey said, the 15 aliens will file a lawsuit. Of the 15 aliens, one-third are in detention, several have been deported, and the others posted bond and have been released to await the outcome of their asylum petitions, Schey said.

Activists who work with refugees have been trying for months to build legal cases around alleged mistreatment of detained foreigners by the INS. They especially are trying to focus on the plight of unaccompanied minors who are crossing illegally into the United States in ever-growing numbers and often ending up in detention.

INS officials in the past have denied that minors are handcuffed on a regular basis and have said that discipline involved being confined to their rooms. Robert Mandgie, assistant district director for detention and deportation, said in an interview earlier this year that some of the minors do present discipline problems.