The Trump administration moved to allow border authorities to detain families indefinitely on Wednesday, almost certainly triggering a legal challenge over the detention of children.
The new regulations eliminate a previous 20-day limit on detaining migrant children, allowing families to be confined while judges consider whether to grant them leave to stay in the United States.
The rules replace a 1997 agreement, known as the “Flores agreement,” which currently requires the government to keep children in the least restrictive setting. Trump has repeatedly criticized the arrangements as a “catch and release” system, allowing families to go free while they await immigration hearings.
Officials said they were introducing their own version of the Flores agreement with a focus on keeping children with their parents.
The move is the latest effort to tighten immigration controls, a signature issue for President Trump.
Opponents immediately said imprisoning children would damage their mental health and signaled their intent to challenge the arrangement in court.
“The government should not be jailing kids and certainly shouldn’t be seeking to put more kids in jail for longer,” said Madhuri Grewal of the American Civil Liberties Union.
However, Trump told reporters at the White House that he was in part motivated by protecting children from the arduous journey to the American border.
“One of the things that is happening, when they see you can’t get into the United States, or when they see if they do get into the United States they will be brought back to their country … they won’t come. And many people will be saved,” he said.
“Many women’s lives will not be destroyed.”
James Carafano, the Heritage Foundation’s vice president for national security, and Mike Howell, former Department of Homeland Security oversight counsel and senior adviser for executive branch relations, described the Flores settlement as a “loophole” that had contributed to the crisis at the southern border.
“The rule has been weaponized to create chaos and overload our immigration court system and detention facilities,” they said in a statement. “Abandoning Flores is a vital step in restoring the rule of law and moving toward an immigration system that once again works for all Americans.”
