A judge in the District Court of Washington, D.C., on Friday blocked an August Trump administration rule that would have extended the legal detention of unauthorized migrant minors beyond 20 days.
The Trump rule, announced by the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services, claimed that requirements laid out by the 1997 Flores Settlement Agreement, which limited the detainment of children, had been met and the FSA should be ended.
“Today, the government has issued a critical rule that will permit the Department of Homeland Security to appropriately hold families together and improve the integrity of the immigration system,” acting Secretary Kevin McAleenan said at the time. “This rule allows the federal government to enforce immigration laws as passed by Congress and ensures that all children in U.S. government custody are treated with dignity, respect, and special concern for their particular vulnerability.”
Judge Dolly Gee ruled on Friday, however, that the terms of FSA had not been met. “The Flores Settlement Agreement remains in effect and has not been terminated,” the official court record stated. The ruling by Gee claimed that the government’s new proposed regulations “fail to implement and are inconsistent with the relevant and substantive terms of the Flores Settlement Agreement.”
The FSA was signed by President Clinton in 1997 following a Supreme Court ruling in the case of Reno v. Flores. The measure was intended to be temporary, with an initial extension of 45 days.
“The Department of Justice is disappointed that the court is continuing to impose the outdated Flores Agreement even after the government has done exactly what the Agreement required: issue a comprehensive rule that will protect vulnerable children, maintain family unity, and ensure due process for those awaiting adjudication of their immigration claims,” a spokesperson for the Department of Justice said on Friday.
