Court: Trump Administration Must Provide Basic Hygiene Supplies to Migrant Children
‘COMMON SENSE’
A panel of judges at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that the Trump administration must provide detained migrant children with basic supplies for hygiene like toothbrushes and soap, rejecting the government’s previous argument that they did not need to provide such supplies because the children would be detained only for a short period of time. According to The New York Times, the judges said their ruling was a “common sense” interpretation of the legal “safe and sanitary” standard for migrant kids in custody. “Assuring that children eat enough edible food, drink clean water, are housed in hygienic facilities with sanitary bathrooms, have soap and toothpaste, and are not sleep-deprived are without doubt essential to the children’s safety,” Judge Berzon wrote. A Justice Department lawyer previously tried to parse the “safe and sanitary” standard, stating that those in Customs and Border Protection custody are meant to be housed in a “much shorter term” and some of the supplies “may not be required.”