Lawsuit takes on migrant-child rule

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California on Monday announced a federal lawsuit challenging a new rule under President Donald Trump’s administration that allows indefinite detention of migrant children and their families.

The 19-state lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California and is co-led by Massachusetts, was unveiled by Gov. Gavin Newsom and state Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who criticized the president for ignoring a court settlement agreement that limited detention of children to 20 days.

“No child deserves to be left in conditions inappropriate and harmful for their age,” Becerra said Monday. “The actions by this administration are not just morally reprehensible, they’re illegal. Children don’t become subhuman simply because they are migrants.”

As the state with the largest migrant population in the country, including an estimated 2.2 million people in the U.S. illegally, California officials have repeatedly clashed with Trump over his crackdown on migrants, including those seeking asylum.

The lawsuit is the 57th legal challenge filed by California against the Trump administration, 13 of which involve immigration policies, including a dispute over funding for a new border wall.

“If you go through the list, we’re reacting to this unprecedented assault on the rule of law and due process in this country,” Newsom said.

Immigration issues have been a flash point between Trump and California. The administration sued the state in March 2018 to invalidate California’s sanctuary laws limiting law enforcement cooperation with immigration authorities, although a federal judge later sided with the state.

The latest legal action is over new regulations rolled out last week that will take effect in two months unless blocked by the courts. The states argue the rules undermine the Flores settlement of 1997, including the presumption that all children are eligible for release into the community.

Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan said the Flores agreement, which was strengthened in 2015, was responsible for a flood of Central American families coming to the U.S. border and argued the new rules would discourage migration.

“The driving factor for this crisis is weakness in our legal framework for immigration,” McAleenan said last week. “This single settlement has substantially caused, and continues to fuel, the current family unit crisis … until today.”

Trump said last week that the policy change was being made on humanitarian grounds.

“Very much I have the children on my mind. It bothers me very greatly,” the president told reporters at the White House. “When they see you can’t get into the United States … they won’t come. And many people will be saved. Many women’s lives will not be destroyed.”

Newsom told reporters at a morning news conference at the state Department of Justice on Monday that the suggestion that Trump is acting on behalf of children is “laughable and ludicrous.”

“The policies of this administration are exacerbating the early childhood trauma of young children — seven, by the way, who have lost their lives,” Newsom said.

The lawsuit announced Monday argues that the new policy interferes with the states’ ability to help ensure the health, safety and welfare of children by undermining state licensing requirements for facilities where children are held.

The complaint also says the Trump administration rule will result in the vast expansion of family detention centers, which are not state-licensed facilities and, the complaint says, have been found to cause increased trauma in children.

The lawsuit says the rule will lead to prolonged detention for children, with significant long-term negative health consequences.

The new policy also violates the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the states argue.

The state officials say the regulations remove protections guaranteed by the Flores settlement, which was the result of a class action lawsuit filed in federal court in California alleging substandard conditions of confinement for unaccompanied migrant children.

That lawsuit, named for migrant Jenny Lisette Flores, ended up with the U.S. Supreme Court before federal officials agreed to a settlement in 1997.

The agreement required children be released “without unnecessary delay” to their parents, legal guardians, individuals designated by the parents or a licensed program willing to accept custody, Becerra said.