Attorneys seek emergency court order to end 'health and welfare crisis' in migrant detention centers

[DonViejo]

Source: The Washington Post


By Meagan Flynn June 27 at 7:00 AM

Attorneys have asked a federal judge to order immediate inspections of migrant detention facilities by public health professionals, arguing that if a court does not intervene, more children may fall ill and possibly die in U.S. custody.

The filing on Wednesday night comes after lawyers interviewed dozens of children in U.S. Customs and Border Protection facilities along the border and reported rampant sickness, as well as a lack of access to basic hygiene items and proper nutrition.

Attorneys described the conditions as “flagrant and persistent” violations of the law and asked the judge to find the United States in contempt. A 1997 consent decree known as the Flores Settlement Agreement requires that immigrant children be held in “safe and sanitary” conditions. Wednesday’s complaint is a continuation of a decades-long legal fight over whether the government is meeting that standard.

Peter Schey, who has been litigating this case since it was filed in 1985, said this is the first time attorneys have sought emergency relief from a judge.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/06/27/attorneys-seek-emergency-court-order-end-health-welfare-crisis-migrant-detention-centers/

[Leghorn21]

1. GOOD, let's GO HERE

[Nay]

2. FINALLY. FINALLY. Get those poor kids out of there!

[elleng]

3. 'Peter Schey, who has been litigating this case since it was filed in 1985,

said this is the first time attorneys have sought emergency relief from a judge.

“In 33 years of representing unaccompanied detained children, through several administrations, both Republican and Democrat, we have never seen an administration act quite as callously and cruelly toward children as this one,” Schey, an attorney at the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, told The Washington Post. “We have never seen the kind of widespread illness, malnutrition, and deaths as under this administration. We’ve never seen anything like this before.”'


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

P.S. YEARS ago, I studied about the practice of immigration law with Peter Schey as my tutor.

[iluvtennis]

5. WOW. rethugs are so cruel and inhumane. gah. nt.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

4. Damn good thing we have a watchdog but this should not have been necessary.

DHS should have adequate facilities to properly detain people they arrest in a human fashion, or else DO NOT arrest them.

Further, once they arrest people, DHS should have procedures and standards in place to insure proper treatment AND that frequent unannounced inspections are conducted in all facilities housing these refugees.

Nuf sed.........

[llmart]

6. DHS doesn't even have a plan or system of keeping track of them.

Under this administration, I doubt anyone who is still part of it has a conscience. No self-respecting individual would take a job working for trump.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

9. I'm more inclined to believe there WERE humane rules and plans under President Obama...

and Trump's psychopathic minions choose to either disregard them or write them out of their standards and regulations.

Either way, we won't know why until their internal operations see the light of day in court....

I believe that if we are indeed a just people, much of our system of upper-level courts will be occupied with cases relating to this administration for many years to come.

(the bad news is that's what we also said about Bush/Cheney)

[scarytomcat]

7. arrests need to be made

from the top down

[Bayard]

8. YES!!

Emergency order. That means getting a fast hearing, right?

The article says this is affecting the agents marriages. Seriously. Try being separated for months, contemplating that you may never see your children again.

And their "nutritious" diets consist of instant oatmeal for breakfast (I'm betting one of those little packages), Ramen noodles for lunch (gag), and a frozen burrito for dinner. The cheapest of cheap food. Same thing every day. No vegetables or fruit. No wonder they're malnourished and sick. Sleeping on cold concrete floors, often 4 to a mat, and sharing one aluminum blanket. Lights on all the time. Yeah, that sounds restful and cozy.

I think prisoners on death row do a lot better than that.

[elleng]

10. This is the Motion for Emergency Relief:

http://cdn.cnn.com/cnn/2019/images/06/26/motion.for.tro.and.pi.4145-0728-9629.14[1].pdf