Biden Administration Abandons Trump Administration’s Effort to Abrogate the Flores Settlement
After months of internal debate, the Biden administration is reversing “Trump-era regulations that would terminate a long-standing court settlement designed to protect migrant children in U.S. custody,” reports Camilo Montoya-Galvez of CBS News. The Flores Settlement Agreement “has governed the care of children in U.S. immigration custody since 1997 through strict standards for government shelters and detention sites,” but was always intended to be replaced by more permanent regulations. The administration “will now work on its own rules to codify the Flores settlement.”
The 2019 Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) rule was part of a pair of regulations designed to replace the Flores settlement, which has governed the care of migrant children in U.S. immigration custody since 1997.
Late last week, the Biden administration omitted the HHS rule from its fall unified agenda of regulations, despite including it in the spring agenda earlier this year. The decision to discard the Trump rule came after months of internal debate.
KJ