MINOR VICTORY

Federal Judge: U.S. Needs Consent to Medicate Immigrant Kids

After a Texas detention facility was accused of injecting children with drugs and telling them it was vitamins.

A federal judge on Monday found that the U.S. government violated rules on the treatment of immigrant children caught crossing the border illegally by medicating some of them with psychotropic drugs. U.S. District Judge Dolly M. Gee ruled that the government must seek consent or a court order before administering such drugs to children being held at a Texas facility. Gee also said children must be informed in writing of why they are in a detention facility, and gang affiliation is not sufficient reason to place them in such centers. The ruling comes in response to a lawsuit alleging one facility near Houston injected children with medications and told them it was vitamins. Immigration advocates who filed the lawsuit are also seeking more oversight on how children are placed in detention facilities.