Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings today announced that she is joining a lawsuit opposing the Trump Administration’s new rule circumventing the Flores Settlement Agreement, which has governed the treatment of children in immigration custody since 1997.
In the complaint before the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, the coalition argues that the rule eliminates several critical protections guaranteed by the Flores Settlement Agreement. The prolonged detention risked by the rule would cause irreparable harm to children, their families, and the California communities that accept them upon their release from federal custody, the attorneys general argued.
“The federal government is detaining children in detestable living conditions,” said Jennings. “We have a moral and legal responsibility to ensure that children in our country’s custody are safe, that they are treated humanely, and that they are detained no longer than necessary. This issue goes beyond party or politics: our treatment of children speaks to our values as a nation.”
In the complaint, the coalition argues that the Trump Administration’s final rule interferes with the states’ ability to help ensure the health, safety, and welfare of children by undermining state licensing requirements for facilities where children are held. The rule would result in the vast expansion of family detention centers, which are not state licensed facilities and have historically caused increased trauma in children, it was argued.
General Jennings joins the Attorneys General of California, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and the District of Columbia.
A copy of the lawsuit will be available online here.
