A new federal court ruling handed down on Wednesday evening is aimed at forcing the Biden administration's Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to take responsibility for proper care of illegal alien minors trying to cross the southern border, in a class action lawsuit brought on their behalf.

via the Washington Post:

The federal government is required to “expeditiously” house migrant children who cross into the United States unlawfully, rather than allow them to remain in unsafe open-air sites along the border, a Federal District Court judge ruled Wednesday night.

The decision, handed down by Judge Dolly M. Gee of the United States District Court of Central California, sided mostly with the lawyers representing the children in a class-action lawsuit. It established that minors at the sites were in legal custody of the Department of Homeland Security and thus were entitled to certain rights and protections, such as a safe and sanitary environment, even if they had not yet been formally processed.

Here are more details on the judge's order:

“The ability to exercise discretion over, and make decisions affecting, a child’s health and welfare is indicative of maintaining legal custody of the child, regardless of whether that decision is to provide or withhold care,” the 12-page order read. “Juveniles, unlike adults, are always in some form of custody.”

Judge Gee denied the lawyers’ request for a specific time limit for how long minors could be held at the sites, but said the Department of Homeland Security needed to process all children “expeditiously” and place them in facilities that are safe, sanitary and “consistent with D.H.S.’s concern for the particular vulnerability of minors.”

She said that Border Patrol officers must stop directing minors to the sites or holding them in the sites “except for the amount of time D.H.S. reasonably requires to prepare the minor and/or actively arrange for transport of the minor to a more suitable facility.”

The case hinges on "whether children who crossed the southern border, alone or with their families, were the responsibility of the federal government while they remained in the outdoor areas waiting to surrender to U.S. border authorities."

The lawyers for the minors argued that terms of a 1997 consent degree on "housing and services" should apply and be enforced:

The lawyers who represented the children had argued that they should be given housing and services under a 1997 consent decree known as the Flores settlement agreement. That agreement established the standards of treatment for immigrant children in government custody, requiring that they be given access to basic provisions like toilets, food and drinking water, and that they generally be held in facilities that are licensed by the state to care for children in the child welfare system. The lawyers filed a motion in February seeking to enforce those terms for children at open-air sites.

The Justice Department's attorneys countered that the children weren't technically in border patrol custody:

In response, lawyers for the Department of Justice argued that because the children had not yet been formally taken into custody by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, they were not obligated to provide such service. They did not dispute that the conditions in the encampments were poor.

“C.B.P. has been apprehending and transporting minors to safe and sanitary U.S. Border Patrol facilities in a prompt manner,” the defense lawyers wrote. “But until that occurs, plaintiffs are not in D.H.S. custody,” they said.

You can read the full decision (.pdf) here.

This is a developing story. RedState will bring you further developments as they become available.