US authorities acknowledge immigrant children held beyond court-set limit

Hundreds of immigrant children in the United States have lingered in federal detention beyond a court-mandated limit, including some who were held more than five months, according to court filings.

The filings have alarmed legal advocates who say the government is failing to safeguard children.

The reports were submitted late on Monday in an ongoing civil lawsuit launched in 1985 that led to the creation of court-ordered supervision of standards in 1997. It eventually established a 20-day limit for children in custody.

The Trump administration is attempting to end the agreement.

Lawyers for detainees highlighted the US government’s own admissions that immigrant children were held for longer custody times, sometimes in hotels used for detention purposes.

They also argued that the children were subjected to contaminated food, a lack of access to medical care and insufficient legal counsel, citing reports from families and monitors at federal facilities.

A December 1 report from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) indicated that about 400 immigrant children were held in custody for more than the 20-day limit from August to September.

Legal advocates for the children told the court the problem was widespread and not specific to a region or facility.

The primary factors that prolonged their release were categorised into three groups: transportation delays, medical needs and legal processing.

The advocates contended that those reasons do not prove lawful justifications for the delays in their release. Through interviews with detained families, advocates identified five children held for 168 days. The report did not say how old those children were.

ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

Hotel use for temporary detention is allowed by the federal court for up to 72 hours, but lawyers questioned the government’s data, which they believe did not fully explain why children were held longer than three days in hotel rooms.

Conditions at the detention facilities continued to be an ongoing concern since the family detention site in Dilley, Texas, reopened this year.

Advocates documented injuries suffered by children and a lack of access to sufficient medical care. One child bleeding from an eye injury was not seen by medical staff for two days.

Another child’s foot was broken when a staff member dropped a volleyball net pole, according to the court filing.

“Medical staff told one family whose child got food poisoning to only return if the child vomited eight times,” the advocates wrote in their response.

“Children get diarrhea, heartburn, stomach aches, and they give them food that literally has worms in it,” one person with a family staying at the facility in Dilley wrote in a declaration submitted to the court.

Another wrote that they were given “broccoli and cauliflower that were moldy and had worms”.