This is part of their play. They've been gunning for Flores for a while and see this as an opening. Even now they are using kids as bargaining chips.
The administration is going for indefinite detention of babies and will argue that anyone who challenges the EO ending family separation under Flores is a ghoul. It's leveraging moral outrage for its own wicked policy goals.
It's really just so awful, y'all.
It's really just so awful, y'all.
What is Flores you ask? It's a consent decree that binds the federal government and dictates the bare minimum standards it must meet when detaining immigrant kids
Under Flores the government is required to release children from immigration detention "without unnecessary delay to, in order of preference, parents, other adult relatives, or licensed programs willing to accept custody"
Flores dictates that if a suitable placement is not immediately available, the government is obligated to place children in the “least restrictive” setting appropriate to their age and any special needs.
Flores also requires the government implement standards relating to the care and treatment of children in immigration detention
Importantly, Flores provides an enforcement vehicle for when the government fails to meet those minimum standards in how it treats detained immigrant minors
If and when Trump signs an EO on family separation it will without a doubt undercut Flores. That is the entire point of the EO. We don't need an EO to end this policy.
But they need an EO to end Flores
But they need an EO to end Flores
And this EO ending Flores will be another in a long list instances of the Department of Justice under Sessions, Trump, and Noel Francisco completely disregarding legal norms and thumbing their noses as legal opinions they don't like
