JUDGE BLOCKS TRUMP POLICY KEEPING ASYLUM-SEEKERS AT BORDER LOCKED UP
Ruling comes as government photos show detained migrants pleading for help
SEATTLE — A federal judge in Seattle on Tuesday blocked a Trump administration policy that would keep thousands of asylumseekers locked up while they pursue their cases, saying the Constitution demands that such migrants have a chance to be released from custody.
U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman ruled Tuesday that people who are detained after entering the country illegally to seek protection are entitled to bond hearings. Attorney General William Barr announced in April that the government would no longer offer such hearings, but instead keep them in custody. It was part of the administration’s efforts to deter a surge of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Pechman said that as people who have entered the U.S., they are entitled to the Fifth Amendment’s due process protections, including “a longstanding prohibition against indefinite civil detention with no opportunity to test its necessity.”
Immigrant rights advocates including the American Civil Liberties Union and the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project sued to block the policy, which was due to take effect July 15.
The Justice Department did not immediately return an email seeking comment, but the government was expected to quickly appeal the decision, as Pechman noted in her order.
The ruling came down on the same day that images were released by U.S. government inspectors who visited facilities in South Texas where migrant adults and children who crossed the nearby border with Mexico are processed and detained.
In one photo, one of 88 men in a cell meant for 41 presses a piece of cardboard against the window, with the word “help.” In another, a man lowers his head and clasps his hands as if in prayer. And in a third, a woman wearing a surgical mask presses both of her hands against the glass.
Auditors from the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general visited five facilities and two ports of entry in South Texas’ Rio Grande Valley.
The report details several potential violations of federal law or Border Patrol standards:
Two facilities inspected had not provided children access to hot meals until the week that auditors arrived. Some adults were only receiving bologna sandwiches, causing constipation and in some cases requiring medical attention.
Of 2,669 children detained by the Border Patrol in the region, 826, or 31%, had been held there longer than 72 hours.
Many adults hadn’t showered despite having been held for as long as a month. Some were being given wet wipes to clean themselves.