DJT Tries Again to End Flores Settlement Protection of Immigrant Children in Detention

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Donald Trump’s Department of Justice filed a motion seeking to completely terminate the 1997 Flores Agreement which requires the federal government to provide basic rights and services to immigrant children it detains.

Under the court settlement referred to as the Flores Agreement, such children must be kept in facilities that are safe and sanitary, provided access to legal representation, and released from custody expeditiously. Lawyers must be permitted to inspect facilities where immigrant minors are detained to verify that terms of the agreement are being met.

From 1997 to 2015 the agreement applied only to unaccompanied minors. In 2015, District Court Judge Dolly Gee extended the agreement to cover children who are detained with their parents and generally restricted detention of those minors to 20 days. President Obama and Trump in his first term sought to lift the agreement. Now Trump is trying again. Both Gee and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals have blocked such efforts.

The DOJ claims the agreement prevents development of effective immigration policy and encouraged illegal border crossings by families and unaccompanied children.

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