US government should release immigrant children: Federal judge
A US federal judge has ruled that the US government’s detention of children and their mothers who were captured crossing the US-Mexico border illegally is a serious violation of a longstanding court settlement.
US District Judge Dolly Gee, a federal judge for the Central District of California, ruled Friday that unauthorized immigrant children and women held in holding facilities should be released as quickly as possible.
The judge indicated a willingness to implement the release of undocumented immigrant children with their parents within 90 days unless US officials present arguments for why she should not issue such a ruling.
"Children and their mothers were held for one to three days in rooms with 100 or more unrelated adults and children, which forced children to sleep standing up or not at all," wrote Gee, who is based in Los Angeles.
Migrant children have been held in “widespread deplorable conditions” in Border Patrol facilities after they were first caught, and authorities had “wholly failed” to provide the “safe and sanitary” conditions required for children, Gee wrote in her 25-page ruling.
Her ruling is based on a 1997 settlement in an immigration lawsuit requiring the federal government to minimize detention of immigrant children.
The ruling is another blow to President Barack Obama’s immigration policies. The Obama administration is detaining an estimated 1,700 parents and children at three detention facilities, two in Texas and one in Pennsylvania.
US immigration authorities have argued in court filings that releasing unlawful immigrant children and their mothers encourages illegal immigration to the US.
Civil rights attorneys say female immigrants with children held at a detention center in the US state of Texas are harassed and sexually abused by jail guards.
The women, who are mostly from Central American countries and come with their children, complained last year that the alleged abusers were allowed to remain around the detained immigrants.
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