LOS ANGELES _ A federal judge Friday blocked the Trump administration's plan to dismantle protections for immigrant youth and indefinitely hold families with children in detention.
Those protections are granted under the so-called Flores agreement, which was the result of a landmark class-action court settlement in 1997 that said the government must generally release children as quickly as possible and cannot detain them longer than 20 days, whether they have traveled to the U.S. alone or with family members. They also cannot be held in facilities that fail to meet certain standards of care.
Advocates had sought to block the regulations when the Trump administration first proposed them a year ago. The changes would have taken effect next month.
In a hearing Friday morning in Los Angeles, U.S. District Court Judge Dolly Gee said the new rules violated the terms of the settlement. Gee issued a formal order shortly after, slamming the changes as "Kafkaesque" and protecting the original conditions of the Flores settlement.
"DHS' new regulations would allow the agency to detain class members indefinitely, regardless of whether such detention is necessary to secure their timely appearance before the agency of the immigration court, or to ensure the minors' safety," Gee said in the order.
The government is expected to appeal.
Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan said last month that the settlement is the driving factor of Central American families coming to the U.S. border.
During the hearing, an attorney for the Department of Justice asked Gee to at least allow partial termination of the Flores settlement and called the new rules a nuanced way to update the agreement.
Plaintiffs' attorneys celebrated the decision Friday. Neha Desai, immigration director at the National Center for Youth Law, said she is relieved that vulnerable children will not have their rights violated by the halted regulations.
"It's clear that the government is going to continue to try and find ways to eviscerate protections for unaccompanied children in whatever way they can, but thankfully the judicial branch serves as an effective check on their attempt to undermine the rule of law," she said.
A spokesman for the Department of Justice expressed disappointment, but said that the administration will continue its work to "restore integrity" to the immigration system.
"The Department of Justice is disappointed that the court is continuing to impose the outdated Flores agreement even after the government has done exactly what the agreement required: issue a comprehensive rule that will protect vulnerable children, maintain family unity and ensure due process for those awaiting adjudication of their immigration claims," the spokesman said.
