Judge to consider the fate of an agreement on protecting immigrant children in US custody

The Trump administration is seeking to end an immigration policy cornerstone that since the 1990s has offered protections to child migrants in federal custody, a move that will be challenged by advocates.

A judge has ruled that migrant children in makeshift camps along the U.S.-Mexico border waiting to be processed by Border Patrol are in the agency’s custody.

A federal judge sharply questions the Biden administration’s position that it bears no responsibility for housing and feeding migrant children who are waiting for agents in makeshift camps.

SAN FRANCISCO – About 8,800 unaccompanied children have been quickly expelled from the United States along the Mexico border under a pandemic-related measure that effectively ended asylum, authorities said Friday. The figures on children were reported for the first time in a declaration by Raul Ortiz, the Border Patrol's deputy chief, as part of the administration's appeal of an order to stop housing children in hotels. The administration “immediately” expelled most children and families to Mexico but more than 2,200 unaccompanied children and 600 people who came in families were held until flights could be arranged to return home, Ortiz said. She ordered border agencies to stop placing children in hotels by Tuesday. Before the pandemic, unaccompanied children were sent to state-licensed shelters operated by the Department of Health and Human Services and often released to family members while seeking asylum.

HOUSTON – A federal judge ordered the Trump administration on Friday to stop detaining immigrant children in hotels before expelling them from the United States, saying the much-criticized practice skirted “fundamental humanitarian protections." U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee ruled that the use of hotels as long-term detention spaces violates a two-decade-old settlement governing the treatment of immigrant children in custody. She ordered border agencies to stop placing children in hotels by Sept. 15 and to remove children from hotels as soon as possible. The Trump administration says people crossing the border without authorization threaten public health and must quickly be forced out of the country. Separately, legal groups have sued the U.S. to prevent the expulsions of immigrant children altogether.

U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee’s order applies to children held for more than 20 days at three family detention centers in Texas and Pennsylvania operated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The family detention centers “are ‘on fire’ and there is no more time for half measures," she wrote. Advocates contend that ICE should release all families from detention especially as the coronavirus has spread rapidly through immigration detention. In court filings revealed Thursday, ICE said 11 children and parents have tested positive for COVID-19 at the family detention center in Karnes City, Texas. The agency says it has released at least 900 people considered to have heightened medical risk and reduced the populations at its three family detention centers.

(CNN) - A federal judge has ordered US Customs and Border Protection to permit health experts into detention facilities holding migrant children to ensure they're "safe and sanitary" and assess the children's medical needs. Last week, lawyers asked US District Judge Dolly Gee to hold President Donald Trump's administration in contempt and order immediate improvements at the facilities. "Children are held for weeks in deplorable conditions, without access to soap, clean water, showers, clean clothing, toilets, toothbrushes, adequate nutrition or adequate sleep. Judge cites previous violationsThe detention centers have become a political volleyball, with critics likening them to concentration camps and torture facilities, while supporters say they're necessary to an effective immigration policy. Dr. Dolly Lucio Sevier, who interviewed 39 children, likened the conditions in the detention centers to "torture facilities," according to a court filing.