Blitz Bureau
MCALLEN, TEXAS: A federal judge extended a court agreement on ensuring safe and sanitary conditions for migrant children in federal custody a day after the US Customs and Border Protection was set to begin selfmonitoring, according to a report filed by Associated Press.
The agreement, it said, originally ended on January 29, but District Judge Dolly M Gee in California decided to extend it by 18 months. “CBP is not yet capable of wholly fulfilling its responsibilities under the 2022 Settlement and the FSA (Flores Settlement Agreement) without the additional support provided by the JCM (Juvenile Care Monitor) and the Court,” the judge wrote in her order, said the AP report.
Customs and Border Protection did not immediately respond to a request for comment, added the report. A court-appointed monitor will continue to visit and report on conditions for children in custody at the US Customs and Border Protection facilities in the Rio Grande Valley and El Paso, Texas.
Concerns were initially raised during the first Trump administration when reports surfaced of children separated from family for weeks and held in poor sanitary conditions. In 2019, a Guatemalan teenager died in custody as a result of a flu outbreak and a lack of proper medical care in a federal facility in Weslaco, Texas.
The parties reached an agreement that was implemented in July 2022 for two and a half years. It allowed a court monitor to keep track of progress made by Customs and Border Protection.
In the last report filed in December, the monitor noted positive changes while also mentioning a continued practice of separating some parents from their children during their time in custody.
