A federal judge in California has ruled that the government is responsible for the well-being of migrant children who are waiting in makeshift encampments on the California side of the U.S.-Mexico border.
U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee issued an order Wednesday evening directing federal agents to stop holding minors at the open-air sites while they wait for their turn to make their case to the U.S. Border Patrol, and to move the children “expeditiously” to facilities better suited for their care.
The ruling came after advocates called on Gee to intervene. They said that the way Border Patrol agents monitor the sites and limit migrants’ movement means children there are effectively in government custody, so the government is legally obligated to protect their welfare. Gee agreed.
Leecia Welch, deputy legal director at Children’s Rights and one of the lawyers representing children in the case, said she was gratified with the court’s ruling.
“Children were being left to fend for themselves outside in dangerous conditions, without adequate food, without water, without shelter, without medical care,” she said. “By arguing that these children were not in government custody, it basically meant that the government could just kind of wipe their hands of these children and their needs while they were at these sites.”
Lawyers for the government had argued people in the camps were not in custody. They said the Border Patrol did not have a policy of restricting people to the sites and did not maintain constant supervision.
A spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the agency that includes the Border Patrol, said the agency is reviewing the court’s order.
“CBP will continue to transport vulnerable individuals and children encountered on the border to its facilities as quickly as possible,” said CBP spokesperson Jason Givens in an emailed statement.
Not ‘safe and sanitary’: Where did these border camps come from?
The encampments along the border developed over the past year, as thousands of migrants from different countries — who had entered the United States unlawfully — congregated at several locations near the border and waited to be heard by immigration authorities. Most people in the encampments are adults, but some are children traveling alone or with family members. And they’re not trying to run away from the Border Patrol or hide; they’re waiting to ask for asylum.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection says, with the high numbers of migrants, agents don’t have the staff or detention space to process everyone immediately. So migrants have spent hours, or in some cases days, waiting in these outdoor areas.
Some encampments are in the high desert outside of small towns in eastern San Diego County. Others are closer to San Diego, sandwiched between two 30-foot-high fences. Border Patrol agents have provided portable toilets and snacks, while volunteers have delivered food and water and administered first aid.
While the government didn’t create the camps, advocates for the migrant children presented evidence to the court (PDF) that Border Patrol agents often directed, or even drove, migrants to the locations, then monitored them and told them not to leave unless they wanted to be deported.
