Federal Judge To Appoint Monitor Of Conditions For Detained Migrant Children

A federal judge in Los Angeles will appoint an independent monitor to evaluate conditions for immigrant children in U.S. border facilities.The decision comes after immigration lawyers argued that the Trump administration has been holding children and their parents in inhumane conditions. The government denied the allegations, and opposed the appointment of a monitor.In a hearing on Friday, Judge Dolly Gee said she reached her decision after seeing a "disconnect" between government monitors' assessment of conditions in facilities in the Rio Grande Valley, and the accounts of more than 200 immigrant children and their parents detailing numerous problems, including spoiled food and foul-smelling water. Judge Gee oversees the Flores settlement, which was signed more than 20 years ago. It dictates how the government must care for children in immigration detention, and limits how long they can be held in jail-like detention centers to about 3 weeks.The parties have until Aug. 10 to agree on a proposed monitor. If they can't, each side will make suggestions to the judge, and she will choose her own.Her decision came hours after a deadline imposed by another judge for the Trump administration toreunite thousands of migrant families that it separated at the U.S.-Mexico border.The Trump administration says it has reunited all the families it considers "eligible" for reunification. More than 1,400 children have been reunited with their parents, according to the administration. But more than 700 children have not been reunited because their parents are ineligible — that number includes more than 400 whose parents who are no longer in the U.S. Copyright 2018 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.