Biden Government seeks to partially end judicial protection of immigrant children

The Department of Justice asked a federal court this Friday in The Angels partially end a court agreement that guarantees the safety of children migrants who enter the country alone, announced one of the lawyers in the case, who showed concern about the Government’s request.

“Although we anticipated the completion of the Flores agreement, the haste of this Administration (of the president Joe Biden) by ending it without adequate supervision endangers the safety of thousands of children,” Leecia Welch, deputy director of litigation at Children’s Rights, one of the organizations representing the immigrant minors in the case, told EFE.

He ‘Flores agreement’which was signed in 1997 after years of litigation, established that federal authorities cannot keep undocumented minors in detention centers for a long period and that the Government must guarantee their care, among other protections.

The legal pact has also allowed immigrant defense attorneys to shed light on the challenges faced by minors in federal custody, including children who enter the U.S. accompanied by a family member or legal guardian.

Welch warned that without the protection of the ‘Flores agreement’, lawyers will no longer be able to meet with migrant minors “and act as guardians to ensure that their rights are respected and prioritized.”

As part of its request to complete the agreement, the Biden Administration has presented new regulations to ensure the care of migrant children, according to Welch.

And although the regulations “it has advantages”, They crucially overlook the fact that thousands of minors are in unlicensed shelters. “As things stand, this omission leaves these children at risk of harm with no one to care for them.”added the lawyer, who assured that they will present a petition to maintain the judicial agreement.

Judge Dolly M. Gee, of the Central California District Court, who for years has supervised the ‘Flores agreement’, will have to rule on the request.

This is not the first time that the US Government has sought to end or modify the agreement; in 2018, then-prosecutor Jeff Sessions asked Gee to modify the agreement in a way that would allow children to be retained beyond the established limit. The request was denied.

A similar request was made by the Barack Obama Administration (2009-2017) after the increase in unaccompanied children entering the country in 2014.

The agreement is named after Jenny Flores, a fifteen-year-old minor who fled the civil war in El Salvador and after crossing the border in 1985, faced harsh treatment by immigration authorities, which included a strip search and being locked in a youth center for months without education, recreation and other supports while awaiting deportation.

The expulsion was avoided after the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other organizations sued the US government and began litigation that covered all the children and led to the agreement.

It may interest you

• Mexico: irregular migrants intercepted triple in the first quarter
• The US has deported 690,000 migrants since lifting Title 42
• Trump “wouldn’t give a dime” to Mexico for the immigration crisis