Emergency Bid to Inspect Child-Detention Sites Sent to Mediation

(Bloomberg) -- A federal judge reviewing allegations of squalid conditions for children held at Customs and Border Protection facilities in Texas ordered a court-appointed monitor to urgently examine the situation and report back in two weeks.

The Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law on Wednesday filed emergency-inspection requests for facilities in El Paso and the Rio Grande Valley, saying there’s a public-health emergency at the sites. The group also asked that independent medical professionals be given access to children held there.

U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee, who’s overseeing enforcement of a 1997 agreement over the treatment of children in immigration detention, on Friday ordered expedited mediation before the monitor she had appointed to handle alleged infractions of the so-called Flores agreement. Gee asked for a status report by July 12.

The judge expressed concern that in spite of her previous findings that CBP had breached the agreement by holding children in deplorable and unsanitary conditions, the same allegations keep coming up. She said the 1997 agreement charged the government with preparing a written plan regarding the expedited placement of minors in case of a sudden influx of migrants.

“If 22 years has not been sufficient time for defendants to refine that plan in a manner consistent with their ‘concern for the particular vulnerability of minors’ and their obligation to maintain facilities that are consistently ‘safe and sanitary,’ it is imperative that they develop such a comprehensive plan forthwith,” Gee said in her ruling filed in Los Angeles.

The human rights lawyers said the children at the Texas border facilities are held for weeks without access to soap, clean water, showers, clothing, toilets, toothbrushes, adequate nutrition and don’t get sufficient sleep. Due the lack of basic hygiene, flu is spreading among the children who aren’t receiving medical assessments or treatment, according to the lawyers.

To contact the reporter on this story: Edvard Pettersson in Los Angeles at epettersson@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Joe Schneider, Steve Stroth

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