A Customs and Border Patrol officer guards the entrance to the Border Patrol station in Clint, Texas, Wednesday, June 26, 2019. The facility has been a hub for detained children in border patrol custody in New Mexico and West Texas since 2014. (AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio)
The Associated Press
CLINT, Texas (AP) - Immigrant advocates have asked a federal judge to issue an emergency order requiring immediate inspections and access for doctors at border detention facilities where they say children are languishing in filthy conditions.
The federal court filing Wednesday follows last week's discovery of children in a Border Patrol facility in Clint, Texas who were locked up for weeks and tasked with caring for toddlers.
Lawyers say sleep-deprived, flu-stricken immigrant children are being crammed into frigid facilities that threaten to sicken more children. One doctor compared the locations to torture centers.
The attorneys are also asking for the prompt release of children to parents and close relatives.
The filing comes in a decades-old federal court case over detention conditions for immigrant children.
A message was sent to the Department of Homeland Security.
Two Border Patrol sub-contractors, "monitors," brought for the first time to care for children walk outside at the Border Patrol station, Wednesday, June 26, 2019, in Clint, Texas. The decision to hire monitors for the facility followed revelations by lawyers who interviewed dozens of immigrant children who told them about Border Patrol agents who deputized older children to care for younger children. (AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio)
The Associated Press
National Guard soldiers adjust a shade tarp over portable toilets adjacent to a building used for the detention of unaccompanied children in Border Patrol custody in Clint, Texas, Wednesday, June 26, 2019. Migrant children being housed at the Border Patrol facility near El Paso appeared mostly clean and were being watched by hallway monitors on Wednesday, less than a week since they reported living there in squalid conditions with inadequate food, water and sanitation. (AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio)
The Associated Press
The entrance to the Border Patrol station in Clint, Texas, Wednesday, June 26, 2019. Migrant children being housed at the Border Patrol facility near El Paso appeared mostly clean and were being watched by hallway monitors on Wednesday, less than a week since they reported living there in squalid conditions with inadequate food, water and sanitation. (AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio)
The Associated Press
The entrance to the Border Patrol station in Clint, Texas, Wednesday, June 26, 2019. Migrant children being housed at the Border Patrol facility near El Paso appeared mostly clean and were being watched by hallway monitors on Wednesday, less than a week since they reported living there in squalid conditions with inadequate food, water and sanitation. (AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio)
The Associated Press