Federal court that migrant children in desert camps need to be in safe and clean facilities

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

A federal judge ruled that border officials are responsible for the welfare of children sheltering int encampments on the California side of the U.S.-Mexico border. Judge Dolly Gee said that even though the Border Patrol didn’t create the camps, the adults and minors there are still considered under Border Patrol custody because agents are monitoring them and telling them where to go. 

Reporting from KQED in San Francisco, Tyche Hendricks says this ruling is significant because a legal settlement from the 90s known as the Flores settlement requires the government to provide safe and sanitary conditions to children who are in immigration custody. Hendricks speaks to Lee-sha Welch of Children’s Rights, one of the lawyers who asked Judge Gee to weigh in on these children’s treatment. Welch says this case isn’t about politics but “how we as a country want to take care of children.”

Judge Dolly Gee of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California issued the  12-page order earlier this week.  She found that the children, who federal officials have argued are not in U.S. custody, are entitled to the rights and protections offered to migrant minors under the 1990s Flores settlement. Under that settlement, the U.S. government agreed to provide basic services to migrant children, including by housing them in “safe and sanitary” facilities. 

KJ

CBS News reports on teh order here.