By Alyssa Aquino

Law360 (July 16, 2020, 10:43 PM EDT ) A California federal judge on Thursday extended the deadline for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to comply with an order to release migrant children who have been in government custody for more than 20 days.

U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee gave ICE until July 27 to comply with instructions to release minors held at the country's three family detention centers after attorneys for both the government and the detained children requested the extra time.

Both parties are "diligently engaging in discussions to comply with Paragraph 6 of the order," according to court filings.

Judge Gee, who is overseeing a long-running class action on behalf of migrant children in government custody, initially called for the children to be released by July 17, after advocates argued that the children were being held unnecessarily and were at risk of catching COVID-19 in the congregate settings.

As of June 25, at least 11 people at the Karnes County, Texas, and four employees at the Dilley, Texas, family detention centers tested positive for COVID-19, court filings show.

"The [family residential centers] are 'on fire' and there is no more time for half measures," Judge Gee wrote in her order.

She gave ICE two options for compliance: release the migrant children to an adult sponsor, or "releas[e] the minors with their guardians/parents if ICE exercises its discretion to release the adults."

The agency may keep children in government custody if a suitable sponsor can't be located, if the parents waive their release rights or if they failed to appear at a previous immigration court hearing, Judge Gee said.

Paragraph 6 of the order requires the two sides to hash out how ICE will inform detained parents of their children's rights to be released and how the agency will obtain sponsorship information, according to court filings.

Representatives for both parties didn't immediately respond to late Thursday requests for comment.

In a separate D.C. federal court suit, the same detained parents have raised concerns that they're being forced to choose between releasing their children to a sponsor — with no assurances of ever seeing them again — or signing a form indefinitely waiving their children's rights to release.

The option is a "binary choice," amounting to the Trump administration's second attempt at family separation, their attorneys say.

In court filings, the government explained that it is following federal public health guidelines at the family detention centers, which are operating at a reduced capacity and have increased stocks of soap, hand sanitizer and personal protective equipment. Moreover, the staff has taken preventative measures like cleaning certain areas multiple times a day, ICE said.

The Flores class is represented by Carlos Holguin and Peter A. Schey of the Center for Human Rights & Constitutional Law, Holly S. Cooper of the University of California, Davis School of Law, Bill Ong Hing of the University of San Francisco School of Law Immigration and Deportation Defense Clinic, Stephen Rosenbaum of La Raza Centro Legal Inc., Jennifer Kelleher Cloyd, Katherine H. Manning and Annette Kirkham of the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley, and Bridget Cambria of ALDEA — The People's Justice Center.

The government is represented by Sarah B. Fabian of the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Division.

The case is Flores et al. v. Barr et al., case number 2:85-cv-04544, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

---Additional reporting by Suzanne Monyak, Nadia Dreid and Dorothy Atkins. Editing by Adam LoBelia.

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