Judge orders doctor to assess migrants in U.S. custody.
A new deal in a lawsuit over conditions for migrants in U.S. custody will send a high-profile pediatrician into facilities across Texas to assess migrant health and recommend fixes.
Attorneys in the class-action suit representing thousands of migrant children reached an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice to monitor and improve care.
The deal between the DOJ and attorneys in the class-action suit representing thousands of migrant children sets an Aug. 29 deadline.
The sides agree to find “any remedial steps necessary to bring the conditions of custody and systems of child health care into compliance with the law and the Flores Settlement Agreement,” court records show.
The 22-year-old agreement mandates how the U.S. government treats minors in its custody.
The initial road map is outlined in a joint status report that U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee in California had ordered both sides to submit by Friday as part of mediation talks.
The judge’s order came in response to a temporary restraining order attorneys filed last month.
They claimed that reports of serious overcrowding and mistreatment of migrants at U.S. Customs and Border Protection facilities in El Paso and the Rio Grande Valley showed the federal government was in violation of the Flores Settlement, and they asked the court to intervene.
A court-appointed monitor overseeing the implementation of the agreement, with consent from both sides, appointed the “expert” doctor this week. As part of the deal, he will conduct evaluations and assess health conditions at facilities for CBP and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement, which takes cares of unaccompanied migrant children after they’ve been processed at the border.
The doctor will draft a report with his findings and recommendations by Aug. 5. Litigating U.S. attorneys will then have a week to respond with comments or objections to the draft report before the final version is submitted to the monitor by Aug. 29.
Attorneys representing migrants and DOJ attorneys met on Wednesday with the court-appointed monitor to hash out the details of the deal. They will meet again one week after the final report is submitted.
“The parties agree that the ongoing mediation discussions will cover all topics ... including medical care, conditions of custody for class members in the RGV and El Paso Sectors, the duration of custody for class members in the RGV and El Paso Sectors, and data collection and disclosure,” the joint status report said.
Paul Wise, the doctor chosen to visit the facilities and draft the report, is a pediatrician at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital in Stanford, California and a professor at that university’s medical school.
The report said Wise had already made his first visit to facilities in the Rio Grande Valley this week, prior to attending the July 10 meeting. Others in attendance, aside from the court monitor and the attorneys, were CBP’s senior medical adviser and the juvenile coordinator, as well as representatives from CBP and Border Patrol.
In the report, DOJ officials pointed out a marked decrease in the apprehension of unaccompanied minors and families with children in the El Paso and Rio Grande Valley sectors from May to June.
“Lower apprehension rates combined with increases in capacity by HHS have allowed for reductions in the numbers of minors in custody and reduced times in custody for minors in the RGV and El Paso sectors,” the court document read.
As part of the deal, the U.S. government also agreed to submit to the court monitor information about the services, and their contracts, available to migrants in El Paso and the Rio Grande Valley to deal with the recent influx.
Earlier this week, the court authorized 20 mostly Democratic states to file an amicus brief in support of the temporary restraining order.
On Friday, DOJ attorneys also asked Judge Gee for a three-day extension, with a July 15 deadline, to file a separate report by CBP’s juvenile coordinator.
That report “shall detail his findings and, if he found any instances of noncompliance, what measures he has undertaken to address them, with particular attention to any of those pertaining to shortcomings in medical care,” during visits earlier this month to facilities in El Paso and the Rio Grande Valley, court records show.