The federal government is seeking to end court oversight of how it treats immigrant children, more than 20 years after agreeing to settle a landmark lawsuit over detention of children in the nation’s immigration system.
The proposal to end a federal judge’s oversight of the Flores agreement, as it’s known, comes as federal officials report they have not reunified more than 500 immigrant children separated from their parents as part of President Donald Trump’s “zero-tolerance” policy.
Last week, the Office of Management and Budget concluded its review of two regulations filed by the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services that would affect the Flores agreement.
The settlement agreed to in 1997 requires the government to provide certain housing and nutritional requirements to immigrant children. It also mandates the release of those children to relatives or other known family friends within a timely manner.
The DHS proposal seeks to “enable the U.S. Government to seek termination of the (Flores agreement) and litigation concerning its enforcement. Through this rule, ICE will create a pathway to ensure the humane detention of family units while satisfying the goals of the FSA,” an abstract of the rule reads.
The second proposal aims at codifying parts of the Flores agreement into law, a step government attorneys believe is necessary before the oversight can be terminated.
Attorneys representing immigrant children in the Flores case planned to brief reporters Friday on what the government’s proposed regulations could mean.
Even with the existing Flores Agreement child welfare protections in place, advocates say the government is failing to protect children, who regularly suffer abusive treatment and inhumane conditions in federal detention facilities — including family detention facilities.
The government’s proposed regulations were filed on the heels of the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy that was used to separate about 2,600 migrant children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border this summer.
The government has since ended this policy and is now in the process of reuniting the families.
On Thursday, Department of Justice attorneys released new reunification numbers: 528 children remain separated from their parents. Of those, 23 are under the age of 5. Nearly 140 parents also waived their rights to reunification, but ACLU lawyers argue that many were coerced while in detention to sign forms they didn’t understand.
The Flores settlement was the result of a class-action lawsuit filed in 1985 by immigrant advocacy groups over the treatment of unaccompanied minors. The settlement states that the government “shall continue to treat, all minors in its custody with dignity, respect and special concern for their particular vulnerability as minors.”
About 18 months ago, lawyers made filings in the case alleging that the government was violating the agreement. Among the claims: Unaccompanied minors at the Shiloh Treatment Center south of Houston were being injected with psychiatric drugs without proper consent.
On July 30, U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee ordered the government to stop drugging the children without the consent of a parent, a court order, or without following Texas law on administering such drugs on an emergency basis.
Gee also ruled that children should be moved to less restrictive housing unless a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist has determined that a child “poses a risk of harm to self or others.”
A recent Reveal investigation detailed a long pattern of problems at Shiloh and companion facilities operated by the same person, Clay Dean Hill. Three children died at the facilities after being restrained by workers and others alleged sexual and physical abuse. Several state reports also singled out the facilities for the improper use of drugs.
