A judge partially ends court supervision of migrant children, breaking a 27-year-old agreement

FILE – Immigrants line up in a dining room at the U.S. government’s newest detention center for migrant children, July 9, 2019, in Carrizo Springs, Texas. A federal judge on Friday, June 28, 2024, approved the Biden administration’s request to partially end a nearly three-decade agreement to provide court oversight of how the government cares for migrant children in its custody. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A federal judge on Friday approved the Biden administration’s request to partially end a nearly three-decade-old agreement to provide judicial oversight of the government’s care for migrant children in its custody.

U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee ruled that special judicial oversight could end at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which takes custody of migrant children after they have been in Border Patrol custody for up to 72 hours. They are placed in a vast network of detention centers and usually released to close relatives.

The Justice Department argued that the new safeguards, set to take effect Monday, meet and in some ways exceed the standards set forth in the plea agreement. The judge largely agreed, carving out exceptions for certain types of facilities for children with more serious needs.

Lawyers for migrant children had strongly opposed the administration’s request, arguing that the federal government had not developed a regulatory framework in states like Texas and Florida that had revoked licenses for facilities that cared for migrant children or might do so in the future. The judge dismissed those concerns, saying the new rules were sufficient to replace court oversight of unlicensed facilities.

The Flores settlement, named for Jenna Lisette Flores, a 15-year-old immigrant from El Salvador, is a cornerstone of a policy that grew out of widespread allegations of mistreatment in the 1980s. It forces the United States to quickly release children in custody to relatives back home and sets standards in licensed shelters, including food, drinking water, adult supervision, emergency medical services, toilets, sinks, temperature control and ventilation.

The judge’s decision came three days before a Department of Health and Human Services regulation took effect that Secretary Xavier Becerra said would establish “clear standards for the care and treatment of unaccompanied (migrant) children.”

The new HHS rule will create an office of independent ombudsman, establish minimum standards for temporary shelters for overcrowded children, and formalize advances in screening protocols for the release of children to families and sponsors and for legal services.

Of the 13,093 beds operated by the department, 7,317 of them — more than half — are in Texas, according to the ruling. The judge rejected the plaintiff’s suggestion to completely stop housing children in Texas and Florida, calling it “not only impractical, but also potentially harmful to unaccompanied migrant children to discontinue facilities in these border states.”

However, in her ruling, the judge upheld the possibility that lawyers for migrant children could access information about and meet with children detained in Department of Health and Human Services facilities.

The Administration has not sought to eliminate judicial oversight of Border Patrol stations run by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.