The Donald Trump administration is seeking to end the Flores Settlement Agreement, an immigration policy that since the 1990s has offered protections to immigrant children in federal custody, according to a court filing Thursday.

What is the Flores Settlement Agreement?

The agreement is named after a girl Salvadoran Jenny Flores, whose lawsuit alleging widespread mistreatment of children in custody in the 1980s prompted the special oversight.

Jenny Flores was a fifteen-year-old girl who fled the civil war in El Salvador and, after crossing the border in 1985, faced harsh treatment by immigration authorities, including a strip search and being held in a juvenile facility for months without education, recreation, and other supports while awaiting deportation.

Flores's deportation was averted after the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and others sued the government in litigation that resulted in the settlement protecting all immigrant children.

The Flores Settlement is a landmark legal agreement that provides protections to immigrant children detained in the United States. It ensures that they are treated with dignity and respect, and that their rights are upheld throughout the immigration process, according to the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law.

Since 1997, the Flores Settlement Agreement has required federal immigration officials to hold immigrant children in safe and sanitary facilities, provide them with access to lawyers, and seek their prompt release from government custody.

The legal agreement has also allowed lawyers to inspect detention centers that house migrant children to determine whether conditions are adequate for them and whether the government is complying with the settlement agreement's provisions.

While the agreement initially applied primarily only to unaccompanied minors, in 2015 U.S. District Court Judge Dolly Gee extended protections to migrant children detained with their parents, generally limiting detention for such children to 20 days.

The Obama administration challenged this ruling, saying it sought to deter migrant families from crossing the southern border illegally by detaining them while their asylum cases were decided, and an agreement was later reached to honor it.

What the Justice Department's claim is about the Flores agreement

The Justice Department informed Los Angeles-based Judge Dolly Gee in a document filed Thursday that the Flores agreement should be terminated “in its entirety.” And it argued that the agreement has prevented the executive branch from effectively setting immigration policy and incentivized illegal border crossings by migrant families and unaccompanied minors.

“After 40 years of litigation and 28 years of judicial oversight over a crucial element of U.S. immigration policy by a district court located more than 100 miles from any international border, it is time for this case to conclude,” the Justice Department stated in its filing.

The Justice Department also argued that, through government laws and regulations, the government has codified some of the provisions of the Flores Agreement.

Thursday’s move is similar to one taken when the first Trump administration also attempted to terminate the Flores Agreement, making similar legal and policy arguments against the deal.

But its efforts were blocked by Judge Dolly Gee, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama in 2009, and by the U.S. Court of Appeals. Ninth Circuit.

The Justice Department also asked Gee on Thursday to lift a ruling blocking the Department of Homeland Security from enforcing a 2019 regulation that would have allowed the government to detain migrant families indefinitely, circumventing the 20-day cap.

Flores Settlement Advocates Prepare to Defend It

The Flores Settlement legal team, comprised of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law (CHRCL), the National Center for Juvenile Law (NCYL), and Children's Rights (CR), said in a press release that it remains steadfast in defending this critical set of protections for immigrant children.

“Children seeking refuge in our country should be welcomed with open arms, not with incarceration, deprivation, or abuse,” said Sergio Perez, executive director of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law.

“The Trump administration’s decision to dismiss this agreement, which prevents the government from indefinitely imprisoning children in brutal conditions, is yet another unlawful step that sacrifices accountability and human decency in favor of a political agenda that demonizes refugees,” Perez said.

Mishan Wroe, senior staff attorney at the National Youth Law Center, said, “Eliminating the rudimentary protections these children have is unconscionable. At this very moment, infants and toddlers are being detained in family detention centers, and children across the country are being unnecessarily detained and separated from their families. Now, more than ever, the government needs the accountability that comes with federal court oversight.”

“With its latest legal maneuver, the Trump administration seeks to strip children of their basic human rights and subject them to indefinite detention in family detention centers and prison-like border patrol facilities that no child should ever endure,” she said. Leecia Welch, deputy director of litigation for Children's Rights.

With information from CBS News and The Washington Post

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