ABA applauds California federal court ruling on immigration detention of children
Showing how out of touch the Obama administration’s immigration enforcement positions are, American Bar Association President Paulette Brown on Tuesday commended the ruling by Judge Dolly Gee of by the federal district court for the Central District of California in Flores v. Lynch, which ruled that a 1997 settlement governing the treatment of unaccompanied immigrant children detained by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security also applies to those children who are held and accompanied by a parent.
“This decision is a clear victory for the rights of children and provides ample recognition that children have particular needs and vulnerabilities that are severely hampered by even short periods of detention,” Brown said in a statement. Please click here to view Brown’s full statement.
The ABA released a report last week on the expansion of immigration detention, focusing on the government’s response to the 2014 influx in arrivals of Central American mothers with young children to the southwestern U.S. border. The report concluded that the federal government’s use of family detention violated applicable laws and human rights norms; it is at odds with the presumption of liberty; and it impinges on the families’ due process right to legal counsel.
KJ