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.

  • bostonbananarama
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    The question is whether they are in legal custody.

    Are they unequivocally, without limitation or restriction, free to leave and go elsewhere? If not, they are in custody.

    • Steve
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      It says they are free to fuck off back to Mexico, nowhere else.

      • Flying Squid
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        You do know that most of them aren’t Mexican, right?

        On Friday, 33 migrants, including two small children, waited between border walls in San Diego until agents came to ask they empty their pockets, remove shoelaces and submit to weapons searches before being taken in vans to a holding station. They were primarily from China and India, with others from Afghanistan, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Agents spoke to them in English.

        • Steve
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          I didnt know that. Did they arrive via Mexico?

          • Flying Squid
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            Yes. Hence waiting between border walls in San Diego.

            • Steve
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              Then my original comment was accurate.

    • quindraco
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      That’s not true. If it were, you would always count as “in custody” because there are places you can’t legally go, like into my home without my consent, or into a federal prison without permission, or

      • Flying Squid
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        You seem to think that not being allowed to go somewhere is the same as not being allowed to leave somewhere. It isn’t. The latter is only legal to do to someone if you’re the government. You do not have the legal right to prevent me from leaving your home. That’s kidnapping.

      • bostonbananarama
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        I didn’t say go anywhere. I said, “Leave and go elsewhere”. The idea is simple. Are there restrictions on their ability to move, to leave?

  • DominusOfMegadeus
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    For me personally, if I came across a child in need with no one to care for it, I would absolutely immediately care for it, because that’s what non-psychopathic humans do.

    • APassenger
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      When have we, US-ian’s, not been psychopaths? As a group, that is.

      From what I’ve seen, we’re very good at our own (narrow) self-interest.

  • Flying Squid
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    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.

      • Flying Squid
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        I’m going to. That’s why I said I have to. Trump must be stopped at all costs.

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

      • Flying Squid
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        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
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          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
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            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.

  • Viking_Hippie
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    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.

    Didn’t the fucker campaign on opposition to the concentration camps on the border?? And then they’re just carrying on and defending it as if it was the new normal rather than several clear violations of human rights! 🤬

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    I thought that was just a moral requirement to simply be a decent human being.

  • quindraco
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    What are you talking about? All I said is that I can’t enter my neighbor’s home. I didn’t say word one about preventing someone from leaving my home.

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    There are restrictions on everyone’s ability to leave. I currently can’t go 30 feet south, because I would trespass in my neighbor’s home. These people can’t leave north.

    • PissChrist
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      Great point. Its basically the same thing. Being a child locked in a cage in a foreign country while losing your parents and not being able to trespass your neighbors. Same/same. Youre also now restricted from showing up in my lemmy feed due to the block feature, further proving your point.

      • Flying Squid
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        But these kids deserve to starve to death, you see. They committed the grave crime of requesting asylum in the United States after fleeing for their lives.

      • hitmyspot
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        Lol, that is the funniest,cleveredt block I’ve ever read, that didn’t devolve into rudeness. Kudos.

    • RainfallSonata
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      THE GOVERNMENT isn’t restricting your right to go 30 feet south, YOUR NEIGHBOR IS. And I can’t imagine why.

    • Flying Squid
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      Yeah, why is the government feeding any kids? Why isn’t it letting the poor ones die in the street like they deserve for not pulling themselves up by their bootstraps and starting a small business?

      WIC is just a postmodern neo-Marxist liberal plot!