LOS ANGELES — A federal judge on Friday agreed to the Biden administration’s request to partially end a nearly three-decade-old agreement that required the court to oversee how the government cares for migrant children in its custody.
U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee ruled that the court’s special supervision can end with 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 an extensive network of holding facilities and usually released to immediate family members.
The Justice Department argued that the new safeguards, which take effect Monday, meet and in some respects exceed the standards set in the court settlement. The judge largely agreed, making exceptions for certain types of services for children with more acute needs.
Advocates for child migrants strongly opposed the administration’s request, arguing that the federal government has failed to develop a regulatory framework in states such as Texas and Florida that revoked permits for child migrant care facilities, or that in the future could do. The judge dismissed these concerns, saying the new regulations are sufficient to replace judicial oversight of these unlicensed facilities.
The Flores settlement agreement, named after Jenny Lisette Flores, a 15-year-old immigrant from El Salvador, is a cornerstone of the policy that grew out of widespread allegations of abuse in the 1980s. It forces the U.S. to quickly release children in custody to relatives in the country and sets standards for licensed shelters, including for food, drinking water, adult supervision, emergency medical services, toilets, sinks, temperature control and ventilation.
The judge’s decision came three days before the Department of Health and Human Services’ regulations take effect, which Secretary Xavier Becerra said will establish “clear standards for the care and treatment of unaccompanied (migrant) children.”
The new HHS regulations will create an independent ombudsman office, establish minimum standards for temporary shelters, and formalize advances in screening protocols for releasing children to families and sponsors and for legal services.
Of the 13,093 beds the department operates, 7,317 — more than half — are in Texas, the ruling said. The judge rejected the plaintiffs’ motion to stop housing children in Texas and Florida altogether, calling it “not only impractical, but potentially harmful to unaccompanied migrant children, to cease operating facilities in these border states.”
However, in her ruling, the judge upheld the ability for child migrant lawyers to access information about children held in Department of Health and Human Services detention centers and to meet with them.
The administration has not sought to remove judicial oversight of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Border Patrol posts.