Administration's plea to terminate a child protection policy for detained immigrants is rejected by the judge
In a ruling on Friday, US District Judge Dolly Gee in Los Angeles denied the Trump administration's request to end a policy protecting immigrant children in federal custody. The decision upholds the Flores Settlement Agreement, a landmark agreement established in 1997 that sets national standards for the treatment and detention of immigrant children by U.S. federal authorities.
The Flores Settlement Agreement, named after Jenny Lisette Flores, a teenage plaintiff who experienced poor treatment in detention during the 1980s, limits the detention of child immigrants by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to 72 hours. After this period, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) takes custody of the children. The agreement also sets standards for licensed shelters regarding food, water, adult supervision, emergency medical services, toilets, sinks, temperature control, and ventilation.
Under the Trump administration, efforts were made to replace or terminate the Flores agreement to allow more expansive family detention and elimination of detention time limits. In 2019, Trump's first administration announced rules to expand family detention and end time limits, but courts rejected these efforts.
The Biden administration has taken a different approach, successfully petitioning to remove HHS from the agreement since some Flores standards had been incorporated into HHS regulations. However, litigation over Flores protections continues, with legal advocates warning that weakening or ending the agreement risks reversing crucial transparency and safeguards for immigrant children in detention.
In her order, Judge Gee acknowledged the government's efforts to improve the conditions of confinement but wrote that suggesting the agreement should be abandoned because some progress has been made is nonsensical. The judge compared the current situation to the federal government's attempt to terminate the Flores Settlement Agreement in 2019.
Evidence has been submitted showing long detention times at border facilities that violate the terms of the Flores Settlement Agreement. In May, CBP held 46 children for over a week, including six children held for over two weeks and four children held 19 days.
The Trump administration's tax and spending bill provided billions to build new immigration facilities, but attorneys representing the federal government argued that the Flores Settlement Agreement hinders their efforts to expand detention space for families. However, Judge Gee's order states that the government's appeal to a law they believed kept the court from enforcing the agreement was baseless.
The Biden administration partially ended the Flores Settlement Agreement last year, but special court supervision may still be required for certain types of facilities for children with more acute needs. Judge Dolly Gee held a hearing with the federal government and legal advocates representing immigrant children in custody a week prior to the ruling.
In a separate lawsuit, it is alleged that detainees' constitutional rights are being violated in an immigration detention center in Florida known as "Alligator Alcatraz." The ongoing litigation reflects a consistent tension in U.S. immigration policy between immigration enforcement priorities and legal protections for vulnerable immigrant children.
- The ongoing litigation over the Flores Settlement Agreement highlights a persistent tension in US policy-and-legislation and politics, as efforts from administrations continue to either uphold or challenge the agreement, defending the general-news rights and safeguards of immigrant children.
- As the Biden administration partially removed the Flores Settlement Agreement last year, the need for special court supervision of certain facilities housing children with acute needs remains, underscoring the urgent need for careful consideration of policy-and-legislation on immigration and the treatment of children in custody.
