Eldorado, USA - The children of a polygamous sect in rural Texas who were recently taken into state custody will be moved from their current location to the San Angelo Coliseum and fairgrounds, according to the Texas Department of Child Protective Services.
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Parents of the 416 children are lobbying to have the children returned home because of illness and overall poor conditions in the state shelter that's currently housing the children.
A Texas judge told the parents of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints today that they would not get their children back immediately because she would not rule on their appeal this week.
State District Judge Barbara Walther stated that one of her priorities was to determine how many girls taken from the remote Yearning for Zion Ranch were underage mothers.
Walther said lawyers would be assigned to those girls.
The judge's remarks came a day after a group of mothers from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints sent a letter to Texas Gov. Rick Perry asking him to see for himself what they call the "appalling and traumatizing" conditions at the shelter where 416 children have been held. During today's hearing, however, the state argued that the children not be returned to the sect's ranch in Eldorado, Texas.
Gary Banks, a lawyer representing Child Protective Services, told the judge the state believes "there is a systematic process at the ranch near Eldorado at which children were exploited and sexually abused."
Man at Center of Polygamy Raid Tells Cops: You Got Wrong GuyToday's hearing was the opening round in what is expected to be a gigantic and complicated child custody fight. Each child will have to be assigned a lawyer, which prompted the judge to point out, "If I gave everybody five minutes, that would be 70 hours."
Hundreds of attorneys who have volunteered to represent the kids are on their way to San Angelo where the case is being heard. The judge will begin hearing the case Thursday.
If the state retains custody, the children will likely have to be placed in foster homes, another massive undertaking.
Authorities raided the compound April 3 after a domestic violence hotline recorded a complaint from a 16-year-old girl who said she was physically and sexually abused by her 50-year-old husband.
Doctor: Kids Want to Go Home
Some mothers from the Eldorado sect toured the compound's empty homes with reporters and photographers from the Deseret News, a Utah newspaper owned by the Mormon church.
"We are not child abusers. The only abuse they've ever had is since the CPS [Child Protective Services] has taken them," a mother named Shannon told the newspaper.
The mothers say the conditions at the state shelter are so cramped that the children are scared and many are sick. At least a dozen children have contracted chicken pox.
The state is spending more than $25,000 a day to care for the 416 children and their mothers, according to reports.
Dr. Stephen Smith has been providing medical care at the state shelter, and he says he is upset by what he has seen there.
"All of the mothers and children that I spoke with wanted to go back to the ranch, without a doubt," Smith told ABC News. "Personally, it makes me very sad for what we have done."
Smith said he talked to a little boy about 7 or 8 who said he liked to sing and then began broke into the hymn, "Mighty Fortress of God."