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U.S. NEWS Friday 16 august 2019

Panel rules soap, sleep essential to migrant kids' safety

By AMY TAXIN tary" and asked the panel our government argued
Associated Press to weigh in. The appellate children do not need these
Immigrant children de- judges disagreed. bare essentials," she said.
tained by the U.S. govern- "Assuring that children eat A message seeking com-
ment should get edible enough edible food, drink ment was sent to the De-
food, clean water, soap clean water, are housed partment of Justice.
and toothpaste under a in hygienic facilities with U.S. District Court Judge
longstanding agreement sanitary bathrooms, have Dolly Gee in Los Angeles
over detention conditions, soap and toothpaste, and ruled in 2017 that authorities
a federal appeals panel are not sleep-deprived are had breached the agree-
ruled Thursday in dismissing without doubt essential to ment — widely known as
a Trump administration bid the children's safety," the the Flores settlement —
to limit what must be pro- panel wrote. after young immigrants
vided. The ruling followed a June caught on the border said In this July 9, 2019, file photo, immigrants play soccer at the U.S.
A three-judge panel for the hearing where a U.S. gov- they had to sleep in cold, government's newest holding center for migrant children in Car-
Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of ernment lawyer said the overcrowded cells and rizo Springs, Texas.
Appeals in San Francisco agreement was vague were given inadequate Associated Press
tossed out the U.S. gov- and might not require that food and dirty water.
ernment's challenge to a a toothbrush and soap be Since then, problems in the evaluate conditions. number of children and
lower court's findings that provided to children dur- facilities have persisted. The issues date back years. families, mostly from Cen-
authorities had failed to ing brief stays in custody. Gee has appointed an They have drawn increased tral America, arriving on
provide safe and sanitary Requiring these items, the independent monitor to attention amid a rise in the the southwest border.q
conditions for the children government said, would
in line with a 1997 settle- be a change in the agree-
ment agreement. ment. Leecia Welch, senior
The government argued director of legal advocacy
that authorities weren't re- and child welfare at the
quired to provide specific National Center for Youth
accommodations, such Law, said the panel's ruling
as soap, under the settle- wasn't surprising. "It should
ment's requirement that shock the conscience of
facilities be "safe and sani- all Americans to know that