A federal judge on Friday sharply questioned the Biden administration’s position that it bears no responsibility for housing and feeding migrant children while they wait in makeshift camps along the U.S-Mexico border.

The Border Patrol does not dispute the conditions at the camps, where migrants wait under open skies or sometimes in tents or structures made of tree branches while short on food and water. The migrants, who crossed the border illegally, are waiting there for Border Patrol agents to arrest and process them. The question is whether they are in legal custody.

That would start a 72-hour limit on how long children can be held and require emergency medical services and guarantees of physical safety, among other things.

U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee said evidence presented by migrant advocacy groups appeared to support the definition of legal custody. “Are they free to leave?” she asked.

“As long as they do not proceed further into the United States,” answered Justice Department attorney Fizza Batool.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    I thought Republicans were supposed to be the “let them die” party?

    God I hate that I have to hold my nose and vote for Biden in November in order to stop turning the country into a theocratic dictatorship.

    • claycle@lemm.ee
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      7 months ago

      If you’re not holding your nose when voting for someone, you’re in trouble. The two go hand-in-hand. Be suspicious of any politician who seems so good you don’t feel the urge to hold your nose when you cast your vote for them.

      • PissChrist@lemm.ee
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        7 months ago

        In my lifetime the only politician I felt GOOD voting for was bernie sanders. Every other time felt like a hostage situation.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        Sure, but there are degrees. I didn’t think Obama was anywhere near perfect, but I absolutely did not have the level of disgust for him that I do for Biden.

        • claycle@lemm.ee
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          7 months ago

          I understand the sentiment, but I reserve that disgust for this country - or more specifically for our national parties and their apparatchiks. If these geriatric nincompoops are seriously the best we, as a country, can put forward to lead us, when we are simply voting on degrees of shittiness, we are probably too far gone to recover.

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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            7 months ago

            I cannot remove Biden from that equation. He certainly does not have to allow the border patrol to defend its right not to care for children in court. He is the head of the executive branch and can tell the CBP that they are, in fact, required to care for those children.

            This is entirely on him.

            I’m still going to vote for him, but I am not going to clear him of responsibility when it is something that is absolutely in his control.