On Thursday (September 7, 2018), the Trump administration announced its intention to bypass rules limiting the time that immigrant minors can be kept in detention centers, with the Department of Homeland Security intending to pull out of the 1997 Flores Settlement Agreement, a federal edict that prohibits minors from being detained for more than 20 days.
The administration says the change will still adhere to the Flores Settlement in principle, issuing new regulations to satisfy the mandate’s basic purpose and ensure that detained immigrant children are treated with respect, dignity, and extra concern for their status as minors. In a statement, Kirstjen Nielsen, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, said that legal loopholes in the current protocol pose a significant hindrance to the department’s ability to detain and remove immigrant families that have no legal right to stay in the US.
According to Nielsen, the changes will standardize the treatment of immigrant minors who are either removed from their parents when they enter the US or who arrive unaccompanied. The Department of Health and Human Services currently oversees about 100 immigration shelters for minors, amid recent accusations of mismanagement and sexual abuse by some agents.
But, the change is almost certain to have the administration back in US District Court, where Judge Dolly Gee has struck down previous attempts to nullify the agreement by the Trump administration.