Trump wants to lift restrictions on how long it can hold migrant families

WASHINGTON – The Trump administration is moving to end a court settlement that limits its ability to hold migrants who cross the border into the United States, the Department of Homeland Security announced Wednesday, potentially allowing for indefinite detention of children with their parents.

President Donald Trump and his administration for years have chafed at the limitations resulting from the settlement, known as the Flores agreement. Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin Mcaleenan said Wednesday the new policy would get rid of an interpretation of Flores that has “substantially caused and continued to fuel” a migrant crisis at the southern border.

Under the Flores settlement, minors can only be held in nonsecure, licensed shelters and must be discharged from government custody “expeditiously.” A judge recently interpreted that time limit to generally mean 20 days.

Mcaleenan said the new rules would take effect 60 days after publication in the Federal Register, expected Friday. He said the changes would reduce the incentive to use children as “pawns” to cross the border. Mcaleenan said the regulations would allow families to be held together in custody pending immigration hearings and establish national standards for holding children in detention.

“The Trump administration has established a new rule to respond to the realities of current immigration flows, a rule based in the principle that families should remain together during immigration proceedings,” Mcaleenan said.

Trump said in a statement the changes would reduce the incentive to smuggle children and close what he called loopholes for people who do so in order to be released into the country.

“To protect these children from abuse, and stop this illegal flow, we must close these loopholes. This is an urgent humanitarian necessity,” he said.