Posted by Gianna Borroto www.immigrationimpact.com/
The Department of Justice asked a court to partially terminate the decades-old agreement that protects the rights of immigrant children earlier this month.
The government argues that the Flores Settlement Agreement is no longer needed because a new Department of Health and Human Services regulation finalized on April 30 will provide sufficient protections to immigrant children in HHS care. Advocates fear that the end of the agreement and decades of oversight by Flores counsel could put children in danger.
Because the new rule only applies to HHS, the government only seeks to terminate the parts of the agreement that relate to children in HHS custody. Last December, the American Immigration Council was one of nearly 200 organizations that signed on to a set of public comments on the proposed rule, submitted on behalf of groups advocating for unaccompanied immigrant children, immigrants, and individuals with disabilities.
What is the Flores Settlement Agreement?
The Flores Settlement Agreement came out of years of litigation brought by a class of immigrant children who had been indefinitely detained in inhumane conditions by the former Immigration and Naturalization Service agency.
