Court upholds order that detained migrant children have edible food, clean water

A border facility in El Paso.
(Image credit: Paul Ratje/AFP/Getty Images)

A three-judge panel for the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled on Thursday that migrant children detained by the government must be provided with edible food, water, soap, and toothpaste.

Under the 1997 settlement known as the Flores agreement, children in custody have to live in safe and sanitary quarters, and the judges dismissed the Trump administration's argument that facilities do not have to offer certain items, like soap and toothbrushes. "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," the panel wrote.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.