A federal judge has ruled that families held in immigration detention facilities must be released after finding that their detention was in serious violation of an earlier court settlement.
U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee in California ruled late Friday that children and their mothers — many part of an exodus of people fleeing from violence in Central America — no longer can be locked up. Gee found federal officials had violated an 18-year-old court settlement regarding the detention of migrant children.
Gee blasted federal officials in a 25-page ruling, stating that children had been held in substandard conditions at two detention centers in Texas.