Judge has to force Trump administration to let doctors treat children in detention camps

The Trump administration must allow doctors into migrant detention centers in El Paso and Rio Grande Valley, Texas to make sure children are being held in clean and safe conditions, a federal judge has ruled according to CNN. 

Last week, prosecutors asked a U.S. district court allow doctors to evaluate the detained children’s living conditions, following reports that children and families were being held in unclean conditions without adequate clean water and basic toiletries. Some children have also pleaded that they were hungry. 

“I’m so hungry that I have woken up in the middle of the night with hunger,” one detained child told lawyers. “There is no soap and our clothes are dirty. They have never been washed,” said one girl. 

The Trump administration has defended the conditions of the camps and White House lawyers recently argued in federal court that jailed children don’t even need soap or toothbrushes.

The judge ruled Friday that the administration violated a 1997 legal agreement that sets standards for how quickly detained should be processed and cited documentation on “deplorable” such detention centers are. 

Thankfully, doctors will now be allowed to assess the situation following the federal judge’s ruling. A joint status report on the health conditions within the camps is due by July 12.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.