Latest news with #FloresSettlement
The Guardian
23-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
First Thing: Trump administration revokes Harvard's ability to enroll international students
Good morning. The Trump administration has revoked Harvard University's ability to register international students and has ordered current foreign Harvard students to transfer or lose their legal status, sending shockwaves through academia. The Trump administration notified Harvard of its decision after correspondence regarding the 'legality of a sprawling records request' – part of a government investigation in which federal officials are threatening the university's international student admissions. The homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, said her department was taking the action owing to Harvard's 'failure to comply' with reporting requirements, adding that the Trump administration will 'root out the evils of anti-Americanism and antisemitism in society and campuses', coming amid the administration's claims that Harvard has inadequately responded to antisemitism on campus. How has Harvard responded? A Harvard spokesperson called the government's action 'unlawful' in a statement to the Guardian on Thursday. The Trump administration is pushing to abolish a requirement stipulating the US government's responsibility to provide basic rights and protections to child immigrants in its custody. The protections, which come from a 1997 consent decree called the Flores Settlement Agreement, cap the length of time children can be held by immigration authorities and require the government to provide detained children with adequate food, water and clean clothes. The administration's attempt to end these protections echo Trump's previous effort during his first term, though the motion was struck down. What is the justice department's argument? It argued in a court motion on Thursday that the Flores agreement should be 'completely' terminated, claiming it has encouraged unauthorised border crossings and stopped the government from 'effectively' deporting immigrant families. Rights groups called it 'unconscionable'. Evidence presented by Donald Trump to the South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, to back up his false claims of a 'white genocide' supposedly occurring in his nation included images from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Rather than depicting dead Afrikaners in South Africa, the images show humanitarian workers carrying body bags in the Congolese city of Goma after battles with Rwanda-backed M23 rebels. As well as photos taken in a different country, Trump showed Ramaphosa footage that he claimed depicting the 'burial sites' of more than a thousand white farmers. Yet, it soon emerged that this was also inaccurate, as it turned out that it showed a temporary memorial site, set up after the murder of two Afrikaner farmers locally. What's the context for Trump's claims? While murder and violent crime rates are high in South Africa, the idea of a genocide against white South Africans is a far-right conspiracy theory: the majority of victims are Black, as Ramaphosa pointed out. Israel has accused Canada, the UK and France of 'emboldening Hamas', after the country's leaders called on Israel to stop its military offensive and allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza. Venezuela's decision to hold elections to choose officials to run an area of internationally recognised Guyanese territory is an assault on the country's sovereignty, Guyana's president has warned. Columbia graduate and detained Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil was finally allowed to hold his baby for the first time, one month after he was born. Conflict, violence, the climate emergency and natural disasters, have forced a record 83.4 million people to become refugees within their own nations. Three internally displaced people in Bangladesh, Sudan and Colombia explain how floods, civil war and clashes between the military and paramilitary groups forced them to flee their homes. 'Local people don't want us here … We don't want to be here either – but we have no choice,' said a woman with four children living in a tent in a Bogotá park. In Cameron county, on the southern tip of Texas, the world's richest man has built Starbase, the home of his mission to 'save' humanity and colonise Mars, complete with a bronze bust in his own image. But as its population of 280 – most employed by Musk – prepared to vote on whether to incorporate it as a new municipality, others living near the base were divided over the billionaire and his plans. Prosecuting polluters over climate harms is notoriously tricky – a huge number of actors are behind emissions, making it hard to establish legal responsibility, and the worst harms are often not experienced in the same country that the emissions are produced in. But in recent years, judges have woken up to the existential threat of the climate emergency and have begun to allow the interpretation of human rights law to shift to accommodate that. Samira Shackle speaks to some of the pioneers of this change and asks what the impact could be. Americans come first and British people second when it comes to how often they swear online, while Australians are in third place, vital new research has found. But while people from the US and UK are ahead in terms of sheer volume of curse words used, Australians were more likely to use uncommon and unique swears, with the researchers noting that vulgar language is a 'natural playground' for unleashing 'linguistic creativity'. 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The Guardian
23-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Trump administration seeks to end basic rights and protections for child immigrants in its custody
The Trump administration is trying to end a cornerstone immigration policy that requires the government to provide basic rights and protections to child immigrants in its custody. The protections, which are drawn from a 1997 consent decree known as the Flores Settlement Agreement, limit the amount of time children can be detained by immigration officials. It also requires the government to provide children in its custody with adequate food, water and clean clothes. The administration's move to terminate the Flores agreement was long anticipated. In a court motion filed Thursday, the justice department argued that the Flores agreement should be 'completely' terminated, claiming it has incentivized unauthorized border crossings and 'prevented the federal government from effectively detaining and removing families'. Donald Trump also tried to end these protections during his first term, making very similar arguments. The move to end protections follows a slew of actions by the Trump administration that target children, including restarting the practice of locking up children along with their parents in family detention. Immigration advocacy groups have alleged in a class-action lawsuit filed earlier this month that unaccompanied children are languishing in government facilities after the administration unveiled policies making it exceedingly difficult for family members in the US to take custody of them. The president and lawmakers have also sought to cut off unaccompanied children's access to legal services and make it harder for families in detention to seek legal aid. 'Eviscerating the rudimentary protections that these children have is unconscionable,' said Mishan Wroe, senior attorney at the National Center for Youth Law. 'At this very moment, babies and toddlers are being detained in family detention, and children all over the country are being detained and separated from their families unnecessarily.' The effort to suspend the Flores agreement 'bears the Trump administration's hallmark disregard for the rule of law – and for the wellbeing of toddlers who have done no wrong', said Faisal al-Juburi of the Texas-based legal non-profit Raices. 'This administration would rather enrich private prison contractors with the $45bn earmarked for immigrant detention facilities in the House's depraved spending bill than to uphold basic humanitarian protections for babies.' The Trump administration in 2019 asked a judge to dissolve the Flores Settlement Agreement, but its motion was struck down. During the Biden administration, a federal judge agreed to partially lift oversight protections at the Department of Health and Human Services, but the agreement is still in place at the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agencies. 'Children who seek refuge in our country should be met with open arms – not imprisonment, deprivation and abuse,' said Sergio Perez, executive director of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law. The settlement is named for Jenny Flores, a 15-year-old girl who fled civil war in El Salvador and was part of a class-action lawsuit alleging widespread mistreatment of children in custody in the 1980s. Since the settlement agreement was reached in 1997, lawyers and advocates have successfully sued the government several times to end the mistreatment of immigrant children. In 2018, attorneys sued after discovering unaccompanied children had been administered psychotropic medication without informed consent. In 2024, a court found that CBP had breached the agreement when it detained children and families at open-air detention sites at the US southern border without adequate access to sanitation, medical care, food, water or blankets. In some cases, children were forced to seek refuge in portable toilets from the searing heat and bitter cold.
San Francisco Chronicle
22-05-2025
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
Trump administration seeks to end protections for immigrant children in federal custody
McALLEN, Texas (AP) — The Trump administration is seeking to end an immigration policy cornerstone that since the 1990s has offered protections to child migrants in federal custody, a move that will be challenged by advocates, according to a court filing Thursday. The protections in place, known as the Flores Settlement, largely limit to 72 hours the amount of time that child migrants traveling alone or with family and detained by the U.S. Border Patrol. They also ensure the children are kept in safe and sanitary conditions. President Donald Trump tried to end the protections during his first term and his allies have long railed against it. The court filing, submitted jointly by the administration and advocates, says the government plans to detail its arguments later Thursday and proposes a hearing on July 18 before U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee. The settlement is named for a Salvadoran girl, Jenny Flores, whose lawsuit alleging widespread mistreatment of children in custody in the 1980s prompted special oversight. In August 2019, the first Trump administration asked a judge to dissolve the agreement. Its motion eventually was struck down in December 2020 by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Under the Biden administration, oversight protections for child migrants were lifted for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services after new guidelines were put in place last year. The Department of Homeland Security is still beholden to the agreement, including Customs and Border Protection, which detains and processes children after their arrival in the U.S. with or without their parents. Children then are usually released with their families or sent to a shelter operated by HHS, though processing times often go up when the number of people entering increases in a short time period. Even with the agreement in place, there have been instances where the federal government failed to provide adequate conditions for children, as in a case in Texas where nearly 300 children had to be moved from a Border Patrol facility following reports they were receiving inadequate food, water and sanitation. Court-appointed monitors provide oversight of the agreement and report noncompliant facilities to Gee. CBP was set to resume its own oversight but in January a federal judge ruled it was not ready and extended the use of court-appointed monitors for another 18 months.
The Independent
22-05-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Trump administration seeks to end protections for immigrant children in federal custody
The Trump administration is seeking to end an immigration policy cornerstone that since the 1990s has offered protections to child migrants in federal custody, a move that will be challenged by advocates, according to a court filing Thursday. The protections in place, known as the Flores Settlement, largely limit to 72 hours the amount of time that child migrants traveling alone or with family and detained by the U.S. Border Patrol. They also ensure the children are kept in safe and sanitary conditions. President Donald Trump tried to end the protections during his first term and his allies have long railed against it. The court filing, submitted jointly by the administration and advocates, says the government plans to detail its arguments later Thursday and proposes a hearing on July 18 before U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee. The settlement is named for a Salvadoran girl, Jenny Flores, whose lawsuit alleging widespread mistreatment of children in custody in the 1980s prompted special oversight. In August 2019, the first Trump administration asked a judge to dissolve the agreement. Its motion eventually was struck down in December 2020 by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Under the Biden administration, oversight protections for child migrants were lifted for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services after new guidelines were put in place last year. The Department of Homeland Security is still beholden to the agreement, including Customs and Border Protection, which detains and processes children after their arrival in the U.S. with or without their parents. Children then are usually released with their families or sent to a shelter operated by HHS, though processing times often go up when the number of people entering increases in a short time period. Even with the agreement in place, there have been instances where the federal government failed to provide adequate conditions for children, as in a case in Texas where nearly 300 children had to be moved from a Border Patrol facility following reports they were receiving inadequate food, water and sanitation. Court-appointed monitors provide oversight of the agreement and report noncompliant facilities to Gee. CBP was set to resume its own oversight but in January a federal judge ruled it was not ready and extended the use of court-appointed monitors for another 18 months.
Time of India
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Trump administration moves again to end longstanding protections for child migrants
The Trump administration filed a motion on Thursday to terminate the Flores Settlement Agreement, a landmark court ruling that has protected migrant children in federal custody since the 1990s. The move marks the second attempt by Trump-era officials to dissolve the agreement, and is expected to face immediate legal pushback from immigrant and child welfare advocates. The Flores Settlement, named after Jenny Flores, a Salvadoran girl whose lawsuit in the 1980s exposed widespread mistreatment of children in immigration detention, sets crucial limits on how long minors can be held in US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) custody. It also requires that facilities provide 'safe and sanitary' conditions for children. Under the agreement, child migrants traveling alone or with family can generally only be held by the Border Patrol for up to 72 hours before being transferred to shelters overseen by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). However, spikes in border arrivals often cause delays in this process. The Trump administration first attempted to end the settlement in August 2019, arguing that it hindered enforcement efforts. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like [Click Here] - 2025 Top Trending Search - Local network access Esseps Learn More Undo That motion was struck down by the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in December 2020, which found the government failed to offer an adequate replacement for the protections Flores provides. While the Biden administration modified oversight procedures at HHS in 2023, the Department of Homeland Security, including CBP, remains bound by Flores. Children processed by CBP are either released with family members or transferred to HHS shelters. Even with Flores in effect, the government has at times failed to uphold its standards. In one 2019 case, nearly 300 children had to be moved from a Texas facility after reports of inadequate food, water, and sanitation surfaced. Oversight of compliance with the agreement is managed by court-appointed monitors who report to Chief US District Judge Dolly M. Gee in California. Although CBP was set to resume internal oversight, a federal judge in January ruled it was not yet ready and extended court monitoring for another 18 months. The latest filing from the Trump administration comes amid ongoing political debate over border policy and could set off another lengthy legal battle over the treatment of minors in US immigration custody.
