Feds: Decades-old court decree allows family immigration detention
Source: Politico
By JOSH GERSTEIN 06/29/2018 09:41 PM EDT Updated 06/30/2018 08:32 AM EDT
Just days after President Donald Trump announced that his administration would ask a federal court to permit detention of immigrant families by modifying a longstanding court settlement, Justice Department lawyers told the Los Angeles-based judge handling the case Friday that no change to the decree may be needed.
Trump administration lawyers argued that a separate injunction a federal judge in San Diego issued Tuesday barring family separations effectively wipes out provisions in the decades-old Flores agreement that have been determined to bar detention of most children in immigration custody for more than 20 days.
The rulings work together to permit detention of parents with their minor children with whom they are apprehended, Justice Department attorneys wrote in a submission to U.S. District Court Judge Dolly Gee, who oversees the 31-year-old Flores agreement on the treatment of immigrant children.
The filing appears to leave open one key question: What becomes of the Flores agreement's requirement that children be held in state-licensed day care facilities?
Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/29/flores-agreement-immigrant-families-separated-689494