Thread by @TexasTribune

1/ The government argued in court this week it shouldn’t be required to give detained migrant children toothbrushes.

Or soap. Or towels. Or showers. From the @washingtonpost. bit.ly/2x8ga1u

2/ The position bewildered a panel of three judges in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit on Tuesday, who questioned whether government lawyers sincerely believed they could describe the temporary detention facilities as “safe and sanitary.” bit.ly/2x8ga1u

3/ The government was in court to appeal a 2017 ruling finding that child migrants and their parents were detained in dirty, crowded, bitingly cold conditions inside U.S. Customs and Border Protection facilities along the southern border. bit.ly/2x8ga1u

4/ U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee had previously found that migrants in Rio Grande Valley facilities were hungry, with some eating only “sandwiches of two pieces of dry bread and one slice of ham.” bit.ly/2x8ga1u

5/ They were thirsty, with up to 20 migrants sharing the same cup to drink from the water cooler. bit.ly/2x8ga1u

6/ They were embarrassed to use a toilet in front of 50 other people and they couldn’t take a shower or brush their teeth or even wash their hands with soap and dry them with a towel, the judge found. bit.ly/2x8ga1u

7/ The judge ruled in June 2017 that these Obama-era conditions violated a 1997 settlement agreement requiring that immigrant children in the government’s custody be housed in “safe and sanitary” conditions. bit.ly/2x8ga1u

8/8 But although the conditions that were the subject of the 2017 ruling date back to the Obama administration, the testy court exchange comes as the Trump administration confronts an unprecedented migrant surge. bit.ly/2x8ga1u