Children in Immigration Detention

Federal Judge Says DHS Must Keep Its Promise to Protect Children in Immigration Detention

A federal judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration’s attempts to significantly undo the

Flores Settlement Agreement, which mandates certain protections for children held in immigration detention.

The changes to the settlement would have allowed the administration to hold immigrant children and their parents indefinitely in jail-like settings.

Federal Judge Dolly Gee repeated that the 22-year-old settlement is still binding, even after multiple court hearings. In her written decision, the judge said that Flores is a contract into which the federal government had “willingly entered and agreed to be bound.”

In August, the Departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services issued a final rule after receiving tens of thousands of public comments opposing the changes. The rule would have greatly impacted the Flores settlement by effectively scrapping a key component of Flores—that children should not be detained for longer than 20 days.

Judge Gee highlighted several inconsistencies between the new regulations and the original Flores agreement.

One inconsistency is the changed licensing requirements for facilities that hold detained children.