Judge allows class-action suit over border facilities to proceed

PHOENIX — Saying there’s evidence to support their claims, a federal judge on Monday agreed to allow a class-action lawsuit against the Border Patrol over alleged “inhumane and punitive conditions” at its facilities in Arizona.

Judge David Bury denied a request by the federal agency to throw out the case, saying the challengers have made sufficient allegations to support their claims that those detained by the Border Patrol are denied adequate sleep, sanitary conditions, medical care, food and water, and warmth at holding centers.

He said it will take a trial to determine whether the fact the limited length any individual is subject to those conditions — sometimes several days — is illegal.

But in a separate ruling, the judge said affidavits from those who had been locked up in the holding centers provided “sufficient evidence ... to plausibly support each of the asserted deficiencies.” And Bury said the conditions about which migrants are complaining appear to be fairly widespread.

What that means, Bury said, is he will consider not just the specific complaints of the three people who sued but what could be hundreds of thousands of others who pass through Border Patrol holding cells, both in the past and in the future.

More to the point, if Bury finds their claims to be valid, he could order the federal agency to make extensive changes.

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“It’s a huge victory because the court validated what thousands of detainees and advocates have been saying for years about the deplorable conditions in the short-term detention facilities,” said Nora Preciado, an attorney with the National Immigration Law Center. “The conditions there are inhumane.”

Preciado acknowledged that Monday’s order is not a finding by Bury that the Border Patrol has done anything illegal but only that the claims of unconstitutional conditions can go to trial.

“While there is no finding on the merits at this point, there was a very careful weighing of the evidence,” Preciado said.

There was no immediate response from the Border Patrol.

The lawsuit filed last year names three individuals — one Tucson man and two women who are not identified — who attorneys say were denied food, adequate clothing and sleep.