Trial opens in suit over Border Patrol detention conditions

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — The trial in a lawsuit alleging unsafe and inhuman detention conditions in several of the Border Patrol’s Arizona stations began Monday in Tucson.

The lawsuit filed in 2015 applies to eight Border Patrol facilities where attorneys say migrants are for long stretches of time in squalid and freezing cells. A preliminary injunction granted by U.S. District Court Judge David C. Bury in 2016 already requires the Tucson Sector to provide clean mats and thin blankets to migrants held for longer than 12 hours and to allow them to wash or clean themselves.

Although the lawsuit predates last year’s surge in immigrant arrivals, it illustrates some of the challenges posed when migrants are detained, especially if they are children.

The trial began with testimony from a data analyst who explained charts showing how the agency detained people for longer periods of time. Immigrants held in the Tucson Sector spent an average of nearly 54 hours in custody during the fiscal year that ended on Sept. 30.

“What happens with these detainees, how these human beings are affected by those conditions and why, that's what this case is about," Bury said.

Nearly 852,000 people — largely families with children — were apprehended last fiscal year. This prompted cries of a crisis at the border from government officials looking to stem the numbers and widespread allegations of subpar conditions in facilities that are designed for short-term stays for adults.

In Arizona, migrants and advocates have long complained about the infamously named “hieleras,” or iceboxes, where those apprehended by the Border Patrol are held before being turned over to another agency or deported.

Photos from 2015 that were evidence in the case show men jammed together under an aluminum...