In this Sept. 10, 2014, file photo, detained immigrant children line up in the cafeteria at the Karnes County Residential Center, in Karnes City, Texas. Photo by Eric Gay/AP Photo.

Twenty-six immigrant fathers and sons have sued The GEO Group, which runs immigration detention centers for the federal government, alleging that armed men swarmed their rooms in a Texas-based detention center and used excessive force to separate them, in violation of a nationwide preliminary injunction against family separations.

The plaintiffs are 13 fathers and their 13 sons, ranging in age from 6 to 17, who sought asylum in the U.S. after fleeing persecution and violence in their home countries of Honduras, Guatemala and Brazil. They were separated for weeks or months last year under the Trump administration's “zero tolerance” policy, but then reunited after a California federal court issued a preliminary injunction to stop family separations, and order the reunification of immigrant parents and children.

Their complaint in Rios v. The GEO Group, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, alleged that on Aug. 15, 2018, GEO sent “scores” of armed men in bulletproof vests, armed with tear gas and guns, to handcuff the fathers and remove them from the detention center, using such excessive force that some fathers' “shoes were knocked off.” Their sons witnessed it. The fathers were taken by bus to the Pearsall detention center two hours away. GEO didn't tell the men where they were going, why they were being taken away, where the children would be or who would take care of the children. Fathers screamed and cried for their children, vomited blood and shook uncontrollably, and one man attempted suicide, according to the lawsuit.

“GEO's staff also told the fathers that they would be deported without their children, that their children would be adopted by families living in the United States, and that they would never again see their children,” alleged the complaint.

GEO told the children, some as young as 6, that they'd be separated permanently from their fathers, and mocked them by saying their fathers were in jail, the complaint said. The children were isolated in the Karnes detention center's medical center all night, the plaintiffs alleged.

“At least one child hid under his bed in the isolation room out of fear, and at least another considered committing suicide,” the complaint said.

The next day, on Aug. 16, 2018, GEO took the fathers back to the Karnes detention center. Eventually they were reunited with their children.

The plaintiffs are suing GEO for intentional infliction of emotional distress, infliction of emotional distress on a bystander, false imprisonment, assault and battery, medical malpractice and failure to provide adequate medical care, negligence per se for failure to report child abuse, and a violation of the Texas Family Code regarding a possessory right to children.

GEO Group spokesman Pablo Paez wrote in an email that the company strongly denies the “baseless allegations” of the lawsuit, and is focused on providing high-quality services and treating people in its care with dignity and respect.

“Placement and transfer decisions are solely made by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Activist organizations understand that for three decades, under both Republican and Democratic administrations, the federal government has relied on contractors to provide operational services at ICE processing centers,” Paez said. “Attacking the contractors is part of a larger strategy to impact immigration policy.”

Manoj Govindaiah, director of litigation at RAICES in San Antonio, who represents the plaintiffs, said he's exploring causes of action against the government, but he believes GEO creates and enforces procedures in the Karnes detention center, and the company is responsible.

“Our clients want to ensure that GEO is held accountable for what happened to them,” said Govindaiah. “The key here is this was a very traumatized population and GEO knew that, and only worsened the trauma by its actions.”

Read the complaint.