Youths’ Suit Claims Beating by INS Agents : Immigration: Two Central American teen-agers contend they were abused while being held last year in an Imperial detention camp for juvenile illegal aliens.

Two teen-agers who said they were beaten by U.S. immigration officers while being held at a detention camp for juvenile illegal aliens sued the Immigration and Naturalization Service on Wednesday.

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in San Diego and did not specify an amount for damages. However, attorneys for both youths, who are from Central America, said they will seek actual and punitive damages from the INS.

According to the lawsuit, William Garcia Ramos and Jorge Ortega Linares, both 18, were physically abused while incarcerated last year at a facility for alien minors in Imperial, near El Centro. The incidents allegedly occurred in July and August, when the youths were accused of “misbehaving” and showing disrespect for camp guards.

Garcia, a Salvadoran now living in Oakland, charged that an INS officer grabbed him by the hair and slammed his head against a wall. He also said that the officer hit him in the face repeatedly and twisted his arm behind his back.

In the second incident, Ortega, a Honduran now living in Spain, alleged that two INS officers punched and kicked him and Garcia, and that one of the youths had his head slammed against a wall. Ortega also charged that he was lifted off the floor by the neck and feared that he would die by strangulation.

The lawsuit was filed by the Centro de Asuntos Migratorios in San Diego, a migrants rights group. Centro spokesman Richard Garcia said the INS officers were not named in the lawsuit because the youths did not know their names.

Virginia Tice, spokeswoman for the INS Western regional office in Laguna Niguel, was unavailable for comment.

Garcia and Ortega were among 15 Latin American refugees who filed claims against the INS in October, 1990, charging that they were beaten, kicked and mistreated by federal officers. The beatings allegedly occurred at detention facilities in El Centro and Imperial.

The Imperial facility is operated by Eclectic Communications Inc. under contract with the INS and houses alien minors. Eclectic was not named in the lawsuit.

Lynn Marcus, an attorney for the Southwest Refugee Rights Project in Tucson, Ariz., said Eclectic guards summoned INS officers from the El Centro INS detention facility to discipline Garcia and Ortega when the youths allegedly began misbehaving.

The unidentified INS officers beat and mistreated Garcia and Ortega in an attempt to discipline them, the lawsuit alleges.

Marcus’ office is assisting the two teen-agers in the lawsuit.

Although the officers’ identities were unknown, the claims filed against the INS in 1990 alleged that the beatings against the 15 aliens were committed by 10 officers at the El Centro and Imperial detention centers. Garcia said at the time that INS officers also accused him of plotting an escape from the Imperial camp.

The lawsuit by Garcia and Ortega was filed after the INS rejected their claims.