Current:Home > StocksJudge orders Border Patrol to quickly relocate migrant children from open-air sites in California -TruePath Finance
Judge orders Border Patrol to quickly relocate migrant children from open-air sites in California
View
Date:2025-04-14 00:17:25
A federal judge in Los Angeles ordered U.S. border officials to quickly process and relocate migrant children from makeshift open-air sites in Southern California where advocates have documented squalid conditions.
In a 12-page order issued Wednesday, Judge Dolly Gee of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California found that the children, who federal officials have argued are not yet in U.S. custody, are entitled to the rights and protections offered to migrant minors under the longstanding Flores Settlement Agreement. Under that court settlement, the U.S. government agreed to provide basic services to migrant children, including by housing them in "safe and sanitary" facilities.
Gee concluded that while migrant children at the outdoor staging areas in Southern California have not been formally processed yet, they are still in the legal custody of the U.S. since their movement is controlled by Border Patrol agents.
At the center of the case are seven sites near San Diego and Jacumba Hot Springs, a remote area of Southern California, where migrants have waited for hours or days before Border Patrol agents transfer them to brick-and-mortar detention facilities to formally process them. Advocates have said Border Patrol directs migrants to these sites.
Citing declarations from advocates who visited the open-air sites, Gee said migrant children at these locations often don't receive adequate food, beyond crackers. Some of the sites have lacked a sufficient number of dumpsters and portable toilets, and the ones they do have are "overflowing" and "unusable," Gee said.
"This means that the [open-air sites] not only have a foul smell, but also that trash is strewn about the [sites], and Class Members are forced to relieve themselves outdoors," Gee wrote in her ruling.
Over the past several years, Gee has repeatedly found that the U.S. government, under Republican and Democratic administrations, has violated the Flores agreement.
In a statement, Customs and Border Protection said it was reviewing Gee's ruling.
"CBP will continue to transport vulnerable individuals and children encountered on the border to its facilities as quickly as possible," the agency said.
Advocates for migrants applauded Gee's decision.
"For over a year, the government has left children suffering in dangerous and inhumane conditions at Open Air Detention Sites (OADS), insisting that these children are not their responsibility," said Neha Desai, an attorney at the National Center for Youth Law. "Thanks to the court's clear and consequential decision, the government can no longer pretend that children in OADS are not in government custody."
Border Patrol has recorded a sharp increase in migrant crossings in Southern California in recent months. In the first five months of fiscal year 2024, Border Patrol recorded nearly 152,000 migrant apprehensions in its San Diego sector, a 72% increase from fiscal year 2023, according to government data.
In 2024, the San Diego sector has been the second busiest Border Patrol sector for illegal crossings, only behind the Tucson sector in Arizona.
Camilo Montoya-GalvezCamilo Montoya-Galvez is the immigration reporter at CBS News. Based in Washington, he covers immigration policy and politics.
TwitterveryGood! (59882)
Related
- North Carolina trustees approve Bill Belichick’s deal ahead of introductory news conference
- Drought Fears Take Hold in a Four Corners Region Already Beset by the Coronavirus Pandemic
- Queer Eye's Tan France Welcomes Baby No. 2 With Husband Rob France
- Princess Diana's iconic black sheep sweater is going up for auction
- Senate begins final push to expand Social Security benefits for millions of people
- Virginia Moves to Regulate Power Plants’ Carbon Pollution, Defying Trump
- Skull found by California hunter in 1991 identified through DNA as remains of missing 4-year-old Derrick Burton
- Video: Dreamer who Conceived of the Largest Arctic Science Expedition in History Now Racing to Save it
- The city of Chicago is ordered to pay nearly $80M for a police chase that killed a 10
- Deaths from xylazine are on the rise. The White House has a new plan to tackle it
Ranking
- As Trump Enters Office, a Ripe Oil and Gas Target Appears: An Alabama National Forest
- Tom Brokaw's Never Give Up: A prairie family history, and a personal credo
- A Judge’s Ruling Ousted Federal Lands Chief. Now Some Want His Decisions Tossed, Too
- Selling Sunset's Jason Oppenheim and Model Marie Lou Nurk Break Up After 10 Months of Dating
- Behind on your annual reading goal? Books under 200 pages to read before 2024 ends
- SZA Details Decision to Get Brazilian Butt Lift After Plastic Surgery Speculation
- 4 volunteers just entered a virtual Mars made by NASA. They won't come back for one year.
- California library using robots to help teach children with autism
Recommendation
Taylor Swift makes surprise visit to Kansas City children’s hospital
Get $150 Worth of Clean Beauty Products for Just $36: Peter Thomas Roth, Elemis, Osea, and More
Transcript: Cindy McCain on Face the Nation, June 25, 2023
Matty Healy Leaves a Blank Space on Where He Stands With Taylor Swift
Will the 'Yellowstone' finale be the last episode? What we know about Season 6, spinoffs
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signs law to protect doctors providing out-of-state telehealth abortion pill prescriptions
The Bachelorette's Andi Dorfman Marries Blaine Hart in Italy
Taylor Swift's Reaction to Keke Palmer's Karma Shout-Out Is a Vibe Like That