President drops limit on time child migrants can be detained

DONALD TRUMP announced yesterday he was scrapping a rule that limits the detention of migrant families to 20 days while they await a decision on asylum applications to America.

The White House said the current agreement, the Flores Settlement, was fueling the surge in families crossing the US border and being exploited by smugglers.

Mr Trump said in a statement: “To protect these children from abuse, and stop this illegal flow, we must close these loopholes. This is an urgent humanitarian necessity.”

The move is meant to come into effect in 60 days but is likely to be delayed by challenges in the courts.

Immigrant rights’ campaigners and political opponents of Mr Trump said the change would keep migrant families detained in unsuitable facilities for longer than is acceptable.

The Flores Settlement emerged from a landmark court agreement in 1997 which dictates how child migrants can be detained. It is widely interpreted as setting a 20-day limit on detention.

Under Mr Trump’s proposal, that limit would be removed, meaning that migrant families would be detained indefinitely until a decision on their asylum case was made, which could be months.

The White House announcement called the Flores Settlement a “loophole” which was being exploited by human smugglers to get young children across the border.

It noted that less than 15,000 migrant families crossed into America in the 2013 fiscal year, but that the figure for this fiscal year is already more than 430,000.