Lawyers for an immigrant rights group will ask a judge to block emergency rules issued by Texas health officials that would allow two immigrant family detention facilities to be licensed as residential child care centers.
A state district judge in Austin will hear their case Thursday as they seek an emergency injunction. The judge already issued a temporary restraining order late last month preventing Texas from proceeding with its emergency licensing process.
State licenses are needed because a federal judge ruled in August that detention facilities couldn't hold immigrant children without adequate licensing. The immigrant rights group has argued that licensing was being fast-tracked without proper procedure.
The two South Texas detention centers opened last year in response to tens of thousands of mothers and children arriving from Central America.
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