Detained children line up in the cafeteria at the Karnes County Residential Center in Karnes City, Texas, on 10 September 2014. Photograph: Eric Gay/AP
The Trump administration is trying to end a cornerstone immigration policy that requires the government to provide basic rights and protections to child immigrants in its custody.
The protections, which are drawn from a 1997 consent decree known as the Flores Settlement Agreement, limit the amount of time children can be detained by immigration officials. It also requires the government to provide children in its custody with adequate food, water and clean clothes.
The administration’s move to terminate the Flores agreement was long anticipated. In a court motion filed Thursday, the justice department argued that the Flores agreement should be “completely” terminated, claiming it has incentivized unauthorized border crossings and “prevented the federal government from effectively detaining and removing families”.
Donald Trump also tried to end these protections during his first term, making very similar arguments.
Ice arrests at immigration courts across the US stirring panic: ‘It’s terrifying’
Read more
The move to end protections follows a slew of actions by the Trump administration that target children, including restarting the practice of locking up children along with their parents in family detention. Immigration advocacy groups have alleged in a class-action lawsuit filed earlier this month that unaccompanied children are languishing in government facilities after the administration unveiled policies making it exceedingly difficult for family members in the US to take custody of them. The president and lawmakers have also sought to cut off unaccompanied children’s access to legal services and make it harder for families in detention to seek legal aid.
“Eviscerating the rudimentary protections that these children have is unconscionable,” said Mishan Wroe, senior attorney at the National Center for Youth Law. “At this very moment, babies and toddlers are being detained in family detention, and children all over the country are being detained and separated from their families unnecessarily.”
The effort to suspend the Flores agreement “bears the Trump administration’s hallmark disregard for the rule of law – and for the wellbeing of toddlers who have done no wrong”, said Faisal al-Juburi of the Texas-based legal non-profit Raices. “This administration would rather enrich private prison contractors with the $45bn earmarked for immigrant detention facilities in the House’s depraved spending bill than to uphold basic humanitarian protections for babies.”
The Trump administration in 2019 asked a judge to dissolve the Flores Settlement Agreement, but its motion was struck down. During the Biden administration, a federal judge agreed to partially lift oversight protections at the Department of Health and Human Services, but the agreement is still in place at the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agencies.
“Children who seek refuge in our country should be met with open arms – not imprisonment, deprivation and abuse,” said Sergio Perez, executive director of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law.
The settlement is named for Jenny Flores, a 15-year-old girl who fled civil war in El Salvador and was part of a class-action lawsuit alleging widespread mistreatment of children in custody in the 1980s.
Since the settlement agreement was reached in 1997, lawyers and advocates have successfully sued the government several times to end the mistreatment of immigrant children. In 2018, attorneys sued after discovering unaccompanied children had been administered psychotropic medication without informed consent.
In 2024, a court found that CBP had breached the agreement when it detained children and families at open-air detention sites at the US southern border without adequate access to sanitation, medical care, food, water or blankets. In some cases, children were forced to seek refuge in portable toilets from the searing heat and bitter cold.
I am an older gay guy in a long-term wonderful relationship. My spouse and I are in our 36th year together. I love politics and news. I enjoy civil discussions and have no taboo subjects. My pronouns are he / him / his and my email is Scottiestoybox@gmail.com
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5 thoughts on “Trump administration seeks to end basic rights and protections for child immigrants in its custody”
It’s getting to be unspeakable….. Well, not unless I want to get into trouble with WP for extended use of profanities
Hi Roger. I understand, Really I do. However I do understand the idea and feel the way you do. How does any reasonable person want to keep food, clothing, toiletry supplies, and access to what passes as education from kids. All that from little kids. These people could have been my adoptive parents. Hugs
Hi Roger. As someone who had my first memories of “family” time as a 7 year old child was “sneaking” first to the screen door to hear the tape recordings of bible tales the two kids who lived at the farm I went to that summer we moved to the town (so the adults in my life could escape the abuse against me charges) to see and pet the animals. The girl was older than me, the boy (who I would later as we grew come to have a deep crush on) was my same age. We played a lot that summer. But on Saturdays the most important day I avoid my adults … they had to do something strange, go to church and then they would come home where I would wait for them hidden from the adults. They would tell me they couldn’t play that day, it was … stuff I did not understand. Then they would invite me in to their home to listen to the tapes of bible stories for kids.
Their house was laid out so from the hallway screen door I could see and hear the recordings as they lay on the carpeted floor of their living room. I stood at the door and listened to the stories. But if one of the adults came to the door I ran away.
So one day they left the screen door open. I slowly entered in and lay down next to the two other kids. I stayed there until the recording ended and I ran out. The next Saturday I again found the screen door open and I again slowly walked in to lay down next to them. But if an adult walked in I was up and gone. If the door was closed I panicked and fought to open it. This went on for a month. Then one Saturday their grandfather who was not of their religion and a large gruff man walked in the screen door, closed and locked it then loudly went off on who left the door open letting flies in.
Every nightmare I had in my little boy brain went off. I was in such a panic I bounced off the door, I was sobbing in fear, clawing at the door, until the mother raced over and slipped the little hook off so I could escape out the door. I did not go back for a few weeks. Sure that I would be hurt. But then during a week after stuff at home got really bad I went back to the farm to pet the cows and horses and dog. The boy found me.
He said he wanted me to come back and hear the stories with them. I said no the mean man was there. He explained it was his grandfather that he did not know the door was to be left open, and that he wouldn’t hurt me. He promised me the door would be open and not locked. He promised. He even said there would be snacks. I was always so hungry. I agreed. The next Saturday I slowly watched from the side of one of the barns as they came home. After a bit as I was getting ready to leave the boy came out and invited me to listen to the recordings.
It was the first time I did not sneak in. I walked with my friend into his home and even though I could see his mom and dad in the other door to the room I laid down and listened to the story. One Saturday when I had had a bad night at home I fell asleep on the floor. When I woke up next to me was a plate that had a sandwich. No one was around. I grabbed the sandwich and raced out of the house to around the first barn, the horse barn and ate it. After that the snacks always included a sandwich I took with me when I left.
But all good things come to an end. In the fall my adopting male figured out where I was going and …stopped me from going. I was punished as you can guess. But the weird thing was the boy and girl I was friends with whose home I went to on Saturdays to listen to stories and have food, their father I went to work for as a teen and he was the farmer who found me hiding in his barn after being so badly beaten.
I was scared the next beating would take my life. I was just 17 and I had just gotten out of school. I begged him to just let me stay in the barn, I promised he wouldn’t know I was there and I would still work for him. Instead he arranged for me to go that summer to the SDA boarding school and spend the entire next school year. He paid for it all. Not sure what he said to the barroom bruiser who beat me and used me to let me go but he came back and told me it was OK to go home and pack my stuff, that he would pick me up in the morning to take me there. When I walked in the house I was so scared, though I would be beaten to death, but no one spoke to me. I went to my room, took some garbage bags and put my clothing in it, the new bible the farmer had given me, and the next day I went to a place where I could lay down at night and sleep unafraid I would be assaulted or made to please anyone.
So if I had to say who was sent from Jesus it wouldn’t be tRump. It would be a farmer and his family who made a huge difference in a hungry abused little boy. Hugs
Scottie's Playtime 
It’s getting to be unspeakable….. Well, not unless I want to get into trouble with WP for extended use of profanities
LikeLiked by 3 people
Hi Roger. I understand, Really I do. However I do understand the idea and feel the way you do. How does any reasonable person want to keep food, clothing, toiletry supplies, and access to what passes as education from kids. All that from little kids. These people could have been my adoptive parents. Hugs
LikeLiked by 3 people
And there’s a section of his fanatical base who believe he was sent by Jesus.
Offensive doesn’t even begin to cover it.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Hi Roger. As someone who had my first memories of “family” time as a 7 year old child was “sneaking” first to the screen door to hear the tape recordings of bible tales the two kids who lived at the farm I went to that summer we moved to the town (so the adults in my life could escape the abuse against me charges) to see and pet the animals. The girl was older than me, the boy (who I would later as we grew come to have a deep crush on) was my same age. We played a lot that summer. But on Saturdays the most important day I avoid my adults … they had to do something strange, go to church and then they would come home where I would wait for them hidden from the adults. They would tell me they couldn’t play that day, it was … stuff I did not understand. Then they would invite me in to their home to listen to the tapes of bible stories for kids.
Their house was laid out so from the hallway screen door I could see and hear the recordings as they lay on the carpeted floor of their living room. I stood at the door and listened to the stories. But if one of the adults came to the door I ran away.
So one day they left the screen door open. I slowly entered in and lay down next to the two other kids. I stayed there until the recording ended and I ran out. The next Saturday I again found the screen door open and I again slowly walked in to lay down next to them. But if an adult walked in I was up and gone. If the door was closed I panicked and fought to open it. This went on for a month. Then one Saturday their grandfather who was not of their religion and a large gruff man walked in the screen door, closed and locked it then loudly went off on who left the door open letting flies in.
Every nightmare I had in my little boy brain went off. I was in such a panic I bounced off the door, I was sobbing in fear, clawing at the door, until the mother raced over and slipped the little hook off so I could escape out the door. I did not go back for a few weeks. Sure that I would be hurt. But then during a week after stuff at home got really bad I went back to the farm to pet the cows and horses and dog. The boy found me.
He said he wanted me to come back and hear the stories with them. I said no the mean man was there. He explained it was his grandfather that he did not know the door was to be left open, and that he wouldn’t hurt me. He promised me the door would be open and not locked. He promised. He even said there would be snacks. I was always so hungry. I agreed. The next Saturday I slowly watched from the side of one of the barns as they came home. After a bit as I was getting ready to leave the boy came out and invited me to listen to the recordings.
It was the first time I did not sneak in. I walked with my friend into his home and even though I could see his mom and dad in the other door to the room I laid down and listened to the story. One Saturday when I had had a bad night at home I fell asleep on the floor. When I woke up next to me was a plate that had a sandwich. No one was around. I grabbed the sandwich and raced out of the house to around the first barn, the horse barn and ate it. After that the snacks always included a sandwich I took with me when I left.
But all good things come to an end. In the fall my adopting male figured out where I was going and …stopped me from going. I was punished as you can guess. But the weird thing was the boy and girl I was friends with whose home I went to on Saturdays to listen to stories and have food, their father I went to work for as a teen and he was the farmer who found me hiding in his barn after being so badly beaten.
I was scared the next beating would take my life. I was just 17 and I had just gotten out of school. I begged him to just let me stay in the barn, I promised he wouldn’t know I was there and I would still work for him. Instead he arranged for me to go that summer to the SDA boarding school and spend the entire next school year. He paid for it all. Not sure what he said to the barroom bruiser who beat me and used me to let me go but he came back and told me it was OK to go home and pack my stuff, that he would pick me up in the morning to take me there. When I walked in the house I was so scared, though I would be beaten to death, but no one spoke to me. I went to my room, took some garbage bags and put my clothing in it, the new bible the farmer had given me, and the next day I went to a place where I could lay down at night and sleep unafraid I would be assaulted or made to please anyone.
So if I had to say who was sent from Jesus it wouldn’t be tRump. It would be a farmer and his family who made a huge difference in a hungry abused little boy. Hugs
LikeLiked by 1 person
Again sorry for the delay Scottie. It’s been a busy sort of time here (productive though).
Amongst all the cruelty in the world there comes these interludes of kindness as in the form of this farmer and his family to you.
The lie being told about Trump has been created by the frantically disillusioned who cannot cope with a changing world.
The hope and the truth lies with the folk who give and aid. who expect no reward. Folk like yourself Scottie.
Best wishes
Roger & Sheila
LikeLiked by 1 person