The federal government is required to “quickly” house migrant children who cross into the United States illegally, rather than allowing them to remain in unsafe open-air sites along the border, a judge has ruled. of the Federal District Court made the decision on Wednesday night.
The decision, handed down by Judge Dolly M. Gee of the United States District Court of Central California, largely sided with lawyers representing the children in a class-action lawsuit. It establishes that minors at the sites are in the legal custody of the Department of Homeland Security and are thus entitled to certain rights and protections, such as a safe and clean environment, even if they are not yet formally processed.
The court order, which takes effect immediately, is expected to affect thousands of children and possibly many more. This will likely force US Customs and Border Protection to devote additional resources to keep up with the flow of migrants. The agency said it has more than tripled capacity at processing centers in San Diego and increased the number of transport buses and personnel to expedite the apprehensions.
The decision comes amid intense political and cultural debate over the rights of migrants — including children — who enter the United States without permission. The influx of US-Mexico border crossings has strained immigration processing centers in southern San Diego County, and migrants have waited hours or sometimes days in makeshift camps to be detained.
So far the open air encampments are only in California but the language in the order is not limited to the state, so if similar encampments pop up in other border states, the ruling will likely apply.
Outdoor areas lack shelter, food and sanitation, which has given way to a range of public health concerns for the most vulnerable. Unaccompanied children and small families sometimes arrive in poor health, according to aid workers and medical volunteers at the sites, suffering from traumatic injuries or chronic health conditions that require long-term medications. exhausted.
During hot desert days, dehydration and heat stroke become common problems, according to aid groups, and nighttime temperatures, wind and rain create conditions for hypothermia. Doctors are particularly concerned about those elements for children, as many have lower body fat than adults and may be malnourished from their travels.
The government argued that the children were not yet in US custody so it had no obligation to provide services. The judge cited Border Patrol agents’ control over minors’ ability to leave the sites — and their power to affect whether children have access to help and medical treatment — as the rationale for his decision.
“The ability to exercise discretion over, and make decisions affecting, a child’s health and welfare implies maintaining legal custody of the child, regardless of whether that decision is to provide or withhold care, ” read the 12-page order. “Young people, unlike adults, are always in some form of custody.”
Judge Gee rejected the attorneys’ request for a specific time limit on how long minors can be held at the sites, but the Department of Homeland Security said all children must be processed ” expeditiously” and place them in facilities that are safe, clean and “consistent with DHS’s concern for the particular vulnerability of minors.”
He said Border Patrol officers must stop directing minors to sites or detaining them at sites “except for the amount of time reasonably necessary by DHS to prepare the minor and/or actively arrange for the minor’s transportation to a more appropriate facility.”
Lawyers who represented the children argued that they should be provided with housing and services under a 1997 consent decree known as the Flores settlement agreement. That agreement established standards of treatment for immigrant children in government custody, requiring that they be given access to basic provisions such as toilets, food and drinking water, and that they be generally held in facility licensed by the state to care for children in the child welfare system. Lawyers filed a motion in February seeking to enforce those rules for children at open-air sites.
At issue is whether children who cross the southern border, alone or with their families, are the responsibility of the federal government while they remain in outlying areas awaiting surrender to US border authorities.
In the motion, attorneys argued that children who have not been formally apprehended deserve the same safe and clean housing as those in official custody, since they are prohibited from moving from the camps and have no way to back to the border.
In response, attorneys for the Department of Justice argued that because the children had not been formally taken into the custody of American customs officials, they were not obligated to provide such a service. They do not dispute that conditions in the camps are difficult.
“CBP apprehends and transports minors to safe and clean US Border Patrol facilities in an expeditious manner,” the defense attorneys wrote. “But until that happens, the plaintiffs are not in the custody of DHS,” they said.
A senior official at US Customs and Border Protection said he could not comment on the legal matter, but emphasized that the current immigration system is ill-equipped to handle the influx of migrants arriving at the border. He noted that the court’s decisions did not come with additional resources to make the orders more attainable.
The latest ruling from the court acknowledged those “practical difficulties” but said the agency “is not processing class members as expeditiously as possible,” citing evidence it “found of children’s ability to process more efficiently during times of scrutiny.”
