A federal judge sharply questioned the Biden administration's position that it is not responsible for housing and feeding migrant children waiting in makeshift camps along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Recent media reports have shed light on the harsh conditions on the ground along the border, where people awaiting processing by U.S. immigration authorities live under open skies or in structures made of tents and tree branches. ing. Camps often lack food, water and sanitation, and rely on volunteer groups to distribute aid and basic supplies.
Border Patrol does not dispute the conditions in these camps. Rather, what is at issue is whether these people are legally detained, which imposes a 72-hour limit on child detention time, provides emergency medical services, guarantees of physical safety, etc. Is required.
At a hearing Friday in Los Angeles, U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee said evidence presented by immigrant advocacy groups appeared to support the definition of legal custody. “Are they free to leave?” she asked.
“As long as they don't go further into the United States,” answered Fiza Batur, a lawyer with the U.S. Department of Justice.
Gee, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton, said the situation was complicated, “like dancing on the head of a pin,” as some children arrived at the camp on their own without being sent to Border Patrol agents. Admitted. Gee did not issue her sentence after a 30-minute hearing.
Advocates are seeking enforcement of a 1997 court-supervised settlement regarding custody conditions for immigrant children, including time limits and services such as toilets, washrooms and temperature control.
Children traveling alone must be turned over to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services within 72 hours, and the agency typically releases them to family members in the U.S. while an immigration judge considers asylum. In the United States, families of asylum seekers are typically released while their cases are heard in court.
The legal challenge focuses on two areas of California. One is between his two border fences in San Diego, and the other is in a remote mountainous area east of San Diego. Last year, when the number of people crossing the border was particularly high, they waited several days before being apprehended and processed by overwhelmed Border Patrol agents. From May to December, agents handed out colored wristbands to prioritize who would be processed first.
Advocates say Border Patrol agents often direct people to camps and sometimes drive them away. Officials can often be seen nearby watching buses and vans until they arrive.
The Justice Department argues that smugglers send people into the camps and rejects the label given by advocates as “open-air detention centers.” The report said it was a humanitarian act for officials to give them water and snacks, and that officials deploying or even escorting them should “direct busy traffic to avoid disorder and confusion.” “It's no different than a law enforcement officer.”
Brent Schwertfeger, a senior official with the Border Patrol's San Diego Division, said in a court filing that Border Patrol typically arrests people in camps within 12 hours of encountering them, but in the past year 24 He said it has decreased since time. The agency has more than doubled the number of buses in the San Diego area to 15 to speed up processing.
Thirty-three people, including two young children, waited between the border walls in San Diego on Friday when officials came and asked them to empty their pockets, remove their shoelaces and submit to weapons checks before taking them in vans to a holding area. It was done. They mainly came from China and India, with some participants from Afghanistan, Azerbaijan and Georgia. The agent spoke to them in English.
Pedro Rios, a volunteer with the Friends of the Americas Service Committee, delivered turkey sandwiches and hot tea and coffee through a gap in the border wall. He gave painkillers and ointment to a limping Chinese woman who had fallen from a wall.
Doctors are seeing an alarming increase in border wall-related injuries, with San Diego trauma centers treating more than 440 seriously injured patients in 2023 alone.
Kedian William, 38, left her 10-year-old daughter with her family in Jamaica because she couldn't afford to travel to Mexico, including airfare, but her asthma makes traveling difficult for the child anyway. It would have been, he said. She fled her home after her family was murdered last year, applied for her asylum, and planned to settle with her family in New York.
William said he tried to reach the camp on Wednesday but fled back to Tijuana to evade pursuit from Mexican authorities. She tried again the next day and waited six hours in the continental United States for an agent to pick her up for processing.
The Associated Press contributed reporting.
