Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer Thursday announced the filing of a multi-city brief in support of an injunction to prevent the Trump administration from implementing new rules that would result in longer detentions and different regulations of care for immigrant children at the southwest border.
Feuer announced that the cities of Los Angeles and Chicago were joined by 17 cities and counties in filing the amicus brief supporting the plaintiffs in the so-called Flores case, which was lodged in Los Angeles federal court.
“Cities and counties across the nation are standing up for innocent children being detained in facilities on our border,” Feuer said. “Together we are demanding that the Trump Administration provide these children with the due process to which they’re entitled. And we’re calling on our nation to provide compassionate care to these kids, rather than inducing further trauma.”
In 1997, the federal government entered into the Flores Settlement Agreement, which set out a nationwide policy for the detention, release and treatment of children in custody of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, now the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services. Specifically, the FSA required that children be housed in non-secure, state licensed facilities and be provided with adequate access to medical care, counseling, language services and legal representation.
Two months ago, the Trump Administration, through DHS and HHS, proposed rules relating to detention of immigrant children in an attempt to undo the protections of the FSA through the federal rule-making process, Feuer said.
Specifically the proposed rule changes would eliminate the FSA’s requirement that detained children must be held in non-secure, state-licensed facilities while immigration proceedings are pending, allow for the detention of immigrant children for longer periods of time than the FSA permits and remove a number of safeguards that protect the children’s ability to receive adequate access to counsel, including the right to automatic bond reconsideration hearings, Feuer said.