SEATTLE -- A federal judge in Seattle on Tuesday blocked a policy from President Donald Trump's administration that would keep thousands of asylum seekers 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 that people who are detained after entering the country 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 would keep the migrants 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. and been detained here, the migrants 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."
Migrant-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.
In her order, Pechman said the government must provide bond hearings within seven days of the requests for any migrants who have demonstrated credible fear of persecution or torture if returned to their home country. The asylum seekers must be released if they're not granted hearings within that time frame, she said.
Pechman also said the burden must be on the government at such hearings to show that keeping asylum seekers in custody is necessary because they pose a flight risk or a danger to the public.
Separately, Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, said he released video and photos of migrant women being held at a border facility in his state so the public could better understand "awful" conditions under Trump's policies.
Castro said in an interview that he had no second thoughts about taking and sharing the images after officials had asked the lawmakers on a facility tour to leave their cellphones behind. He posted the images after visiting a station in El Paso.
"There's a reason these conditions are kept secret: because these conditions are awful," said Castro, chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
He said he holds out hope that Congress will impose standards of care and seek a broader immigration overhaul, though lawmakers have been unable to do so.
Trump signed an emergency $4.6 billion border funding package into law this week after lawmakers split over putting restrictions on how the money can be spent. Some House Democrats wanted more standards on the facilities, but they ran up against resistance from centrist colleagues and those in the Senate. Republicans complained that Democrats delayed the funding.
The Congressional Hispanic Caucus led a tour of migrant facilities this week, and lawmakers decried the conditions inside the Texas centers.
Women held at the facility were "crammed into a prison-like cell with one toilet, but no running water to drink from or wash their hands with," Castro tweeted. Some had been separated from their children and held for more than 50 days, he said.
Also on Tuesday, U.S. government auditors released a report on detention facilities in South Texas.
Auditors from the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general visited five facilities and two ports of entry in South Texas' Rio Grande Valley, where more people cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally than at any other section.
About 8,000 people were detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection in the Rio Grande Valley in early June, when auditors visited the facilities. About 7,500 people are detained there now, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
The report details several potential violations of federal law or Border Patrol standards.
Two inspected facilities had not provided children access to hot meals until the week the 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. In one photo contained in the report, women and children appeared to be sleeping on the ground under Mylar blankets.
Many adults hadn't showered despite having been held for as long as a month.
In a statement included in the report, the Homeland Security Department blamed "an acute and worsening crisis" and said it had tried to expand detention capacity and improve the conditions under which migrant families are held.
Information for this article was contributed by Lisa Mascaro, Alan Fram, Nomaan Merchant and Cedar Attanasio of The Associated Press.
A Section on 07/03/2019