Photo : Office of Inspector General ( Getty Images )

There is a certain subset of the population that believes a person’s humanity should be disregarded if they aren’t American or came here illegally. Those are people that are a part of a group I like to call “total dicks.” Thankfully, the federal judge responsible for this evening’s story doesn’t belong to that group.


CNN reports that a federal judge in Arizona has ruled that conditions in migrant holding cells at the U. S. Customs and Border Protection Tu cs on location violated the Constitution. David C. Bury, a U. S. District Judge, issued the or der barring the Tu cs on sector from holding migrants more than 48 hours after they had been processed. That is “until CBP can provide conditions of confinement that meet detainees’ basic human needs for sleeping in a bed with a blanket, a shower, food that meets acceptable dietary standards, potable water, and medical assessment performed by a medical professional.”

Bury called the conditions in the cells “unsanitary and degrading.” Detainees often had to sleep in the urinal areas due to overcrowding. It was found that these conditions were “presumptively punitive and violate the Constitution.”


CBP has commented that they are currently reviewing the ruling and that when it comes to litigation they defer to the Department of Justice. They issued a written statement saying, “As an agency, we encounter a diverse population of people from all over the world, and we are committed to the health, safety, and humane care of every individual in our custody.” Which, you know, it’s one thing to say all that, it’s another to actually do it.

Overall, this ruling is certainly a good thing and hopefully it will lead to improved conditions for migrants in these facilities. Remember kids, just because someone may have come here illegally doesn’t mean they deserved to be treated as less than human.

