Press Release

Contact:
Daniella Burgi Palomino
(202) 546 7010 | dburgipalomino@lawg.org

LAWG Rejects Proposed Flores Settlement Changes Harming Children, Urges Congress to Do the Same

September 11, 2018

Washington, D.C.—The Department of Homeland Security and Department of Health and Human Services announced last week proposed changes to the long-standing Flores Settlement that would further harm immigrant children. The new regulations would remove safeguards for children established by the 1997 agreement that limited detention of children to 20 days and dictated minimum standards to protect them.

We reject this policy change as yet another effort to inhumanely target immigrants and asylum seekers by restricting their access to protection. Detention facilities do not adequately address the mental and physical needs of children, as proven most recently by during the continuing family separation crisis. These proposed measures further punish children and families for seeking protection offered to them under U.S. and international law.

“This is the latest political move by the administration to continue targeting vulnerable families and children who come to our borders, many fleeing violence and corruption, from Central America. Locking up children indefinitely is simply immoral. It is also expensive. Like family separation and all of the anti-immigrant attacks by this administration, it is not a solution that represents our values or that will make us any safer,” states Daniella Burgi-Palomino, LAWG’s Senior Associate for Mexico, Migrant Rights and Border Issues.

As such, we urge Congress to reject spending increases for the expansion of detention facilities and any bills that would uphold this proposed policy change. We also demand that the administration respect the rights of immigrants and asylum seekers and reverse course on this policy change and all other attempts to discriminate against these vulnerable populations.