Judge says Trump administration can't give migrant kids psychotropic drugs without permission

(Image credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

published 31 July 2018

The Trump administration can no longer forcibly administer psychotropic drugs to detained migrant children without parental permission, a federal judge ruled Monday.

While drugs may be administered in emergency situations, U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee decided, the daily dosing described in the testimony of migrant children submitted to the court is not permissible. "I witnessed staff members forcefully give medication four times," one child recalled. "Two staff members pinned down the girl ... and a doctor gave her one or two injections."

"The staff threatened to throw me on the ground and force me to take the medication," another testified. "I also saw staff throw another youth to the ground, pry his mouth open, and force him to take the medicine. ... They told me that if I did not take the medicine I could not leave." He was given medications including Clonazepam, Divalproex, Duloxetine, Guanfacine, Latuda, Geodon, and Olanzapine.

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.

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