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.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Gee's ruling also required that all children — except those determined by an appropriate medical professional to be at risk of hurting themselves or others — be removed from Shiloh Residential Treatment Center in Texas, a facility central to this case where staff admitted to giving kids psychotropic medications without sign-off from the children's parents or guardians.
-
5 museum-grade cartoons about Trump's Smithsonian purgeCartoons Artists take on institutional rebranding, exhibit interpretation, and more
-
Settling the West Bank: a death knell for a Palestine state?In the Spotlight The reality on the ground is that the annexation of the West Bank is all but a done deal
-
Sudoku medium: August 23, 2025The Week's daily medium sudoku puzzle
-
Australian woman found guilty of mushroom murdersspeed read Erin Patterson murdered three of her ex-husband's relatives by serving them toxic death cap mushrooms
-
Combs convicted on 2 of 5 charges, denied bailSpeed Read Sean 'Diddy' Combs was acquitted of the more serious charges of racketeering and sex trafficking
-
Sniper kills 2 Idaho firefighters in ambushSpeed Read A man started a wildfire, then fired a rifle at first responders when they arrived
-
Weinstein convicted of sex crime in retrialSpeed Read The New York jury delivered a mixed and partial verdict at the disgraced Hollywood producer's retrial
-
'King of the Hill' actor shot dead outside homespeed read Jonathan Joss was fatally shot by a neighbor who was 'yelling violent homophobic slurs,' says his husband
-
DOJ, Boulder police outline attacker's confessionspeed read Mohamed Sabry Soliman planned the attack for a year and 'wanted them all to die'
-
Assailant burns Jewish pedestrians in Boulderspeed read Eight people from the Jewish group were hospitalized after a man threw Molotov cocktails in a 'targeted act of violence'
-
Driver rams van into crowd at Liverpool FC paradespeed read 27 people were hospitalized following the attack
