Judge partially ends court oversight of migrant children, chipping away at 27-year arrangement

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A federal judge has approved the Biden administration’s request to partially end a nearly three-decade-old agreement to provide court oversight of how the government cares for migrant children in its custody. U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee ruled Friday that special court supervision may end at the U.S. Health and Human Services Department. The agency takes custody of migrant children after they have been in Border Patrol custody for up to 72 hours. They are placed in a network of holding facilities and generally released to close relatives. The Justice Department argued that new safeguards taking effect Monday meet and even exceed standards set forth in an agreement that first established court supervision in 1997.