Migrant's Suing Over Horrendous Holding Center Conditions & Workers Win McDonald's COVID Settlement

Via America’s Lawyer: Biden’s administration is sued over horrendous conditions at federal holding centers. Mike Papantonio is joined by President of the American Immigration Lawyers Association Allen Orr to discuss just who in the government is ultimately responsible for protecting the welfare of these unaccompanied minors. Also, a McDonald’s franchise in CA agrees to settle a 2020 lawsuit by providing its employees proper PPE, paid sick leave, and improved restaurant sanitization. Mike Papantonio and Farron Cousins discuss more.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

Since 2018, we've seen images of migrant children crammed into cages after being separated from their families. Now, the Biden ministration is being sued over horrendous conditions at the federal holding centers, which currently has a record number of children and they've become a breeding ground for mental illness. President of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, Allen Orr, joins me to talk about this. Allen, you know, I, I'm amazed. We saw every day, there was a story during the Trump years about how this, this very kind of thing, these very stories, these very fact situations, corporate media is not covering this. For those who aren't familiar, could you explain exactly what the Flores agreement is and why it has to do with this story?

So the Flores agreement is a 20 year old agreement that is, basically controls the way that children, immigrant children, are allowed to be detained and how long they are able to be detained.

So, Allen, here's, here's the question. This is no different from what the media was so crazy about. Every day, Trump, Trump bad this, Trump bad this, Trump bad, this is the same thing, maybe even worse. Now the Biden administration is being sued over violations of this agreement and what exactly are the lawyers for these migrant children alleging? Because it doesn't sound any different from what we heard just three years ago.

Well, it's a little bit different. So I'll make those distinctions. But the final result is basically the same, which is meaning we're not meeting the standard that we're required to meet by law. Under the former administration, all of these children wouldn't even be in the United States. They would have been turned away at the border. They would not have had, unaccompanied or accompanied, they would not have been allowed in. So that's gage number one. So the Biden administration has allowed these people into the country and to care. The Biden administration has changed the custody of these children from being in an ICE detention center to help the human services, health and human services has the responsibility of being better caretaker than the detention centers. However, they're not meeting the standard. So therefore there are housing conditions. There are food conditions that are not being met and as well as the just matriculation and also just the processing of the children. And that is the problem. The surge that has happened at the border has created this condition.

Yeah. The stories I'm seeing are, these aren't minor stories at all. They're, you got, you have children that have been there 60, 90 days that are having mental illness problems having to be canceled, counseled, having to be put on medication for, for how bad the situation is there. I mean, am I getting that wrong? Because that's what I'm reading.

No, you're getting it right. And the point of it is the intent is a little bit different between the two administrations from the, a lawyer's perspective. But as you know, we have sued the government based on having the same conditions. So even a trial and failure at this case is still a failure.

Well, we're six months into the Biden presidency at this point and we, how's the situation along the border changed?

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