Trump administration moves to detain immigrant children longer
WASHINGTON _ The Homeland Security Department is proposing a new rule that would allow for the prolonged detention of undocumented migrant children by replacing a 1997 legal settlement that President Donald Trump has called a "loophole" causing more illegal immigration.
The 203-page proposed rule, published jointly with the Health and Human Services Department in the Federal Register on Thursday, would trigger the end of the so-called Flores settlement. A federal judge has ruled the settlement means children cannot be held in detention for longer than 20 days and should be released with a parent if possible.
Under the proposed rule, DHS would be able to hold children in custody together with their parents for the duration of their immigration proceedings, ending for some migrants a practice that Trump has derided as "catch-and-release."
The proposed rule "would satisfy the basic purpose of the (Flores settlement) in ensuring that all juveniles in the government's custody are treated with dignity, respect, and special concern for their particular vulnerability as minors," DHS said in the Federal Register.
_CQ Roll Call
