Federal Judge: U.S. Violating Agreement in Detention of Young ILLEGALS

A federal judge has ruled that the U.S. Department of Justice’s current system of detaining children with their mothers after they’ve crossed the U.S.-Mexico border violates an 18-year-old court settlement.

Immigrants from El Salvador and Guatemala who 

entered the country illegally board a bus July 7 after 

they were released from a family detention center in 

San Antonio. Women and children are being released 

from immigrant detention centers faster on bond, 

with many mothers assigned ankle-monitoring bracelets

 in lieu of paying. AP

The decision Friday by U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee in California is a victory for the immigrant-rights lawyers who brought the case, but its immediate implications for detainees weren't yet clear. The ruling upholds a tentative decision Judge Gee made in April, and comes a week after the two sides told her that they failed to reach a new settlement agreement as she’d asked for.

The 1997 settlement at issue bars immigrant children from being held in unlicensed, secure facilities. Judge Gee found that settlement covered all children in the custody of federal immigration officials, even those being held with a parent.

Residents lined up for lunch at the center. 
Credit Ilana Panich-Linsman for NYT

Peter Schey, executive director of the Center for Human Rights and one of the attorneys who brought the suit, said federal officials “know they’re in violation of the law.”

“They are holding children in unsafe facilities, it’s that simple,” Mr. Schey said in an email to the Associated Press. “It is intolerable, it’s in humane, and it needs to end, and end sooner rather than later.”

Justice Department attorneys did not immediately reply to late-night messages seeking comment on the ruling.

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