California to sue U.S. over migrant children detention policy

Fri, Aug 23, 2019
By publisher
2 MIN READ

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California Governor, Gavin Newsom, on Friday, said California will join other states in filing a lawsuit seeking to block the U.S. from indefinitely detaining immigrant minors and families with children.

Newsom, in an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, said the U.S. administration’s new regulation is an assault on the Flores decision, adding that the court decision will be in their favour.

The Department of Homeland Security, earlier announced plans for new regulations that would roll back protections for migrant children.

Trump officials are taking aim at the 1997 Flores settlement that set minimum standards of care for youths in U.S. custody.

The government is generally prohibited from detaining children, who travelled to the U.S. alone or with their families for longer than 20 days.

Acting Homeland Security Secretary, Kevin McAleenan, blamed the Flores settlement for an influx of Central American families coming to the U.S. border.

He said the administration’s new regulations would deter migration, adding that President Donald Trump inaccurately claimed that former President Barack Obama had started separating immigrant families.

The regulations, which federal officials are expected to publish, added to an ongoing battle over the Trump administration’s ability to hold migrant families and the conditions that immigrants endure in detention centres.

Newsom said during his interview with CNN, “Family separations happen under this administration, seven young children have died since Trump was inaugurated as president, not one died over eight years under President Obama’s stewardship’’.

Nathan Click, a spokesman for the governor, declined to offer any additional information about the timing of the lawsuit or its contents.

The office of Attorney General Xavier Becerra, whose attorneys represent the state in court, also declined to comment.

However, California had filed some 56 lawsuits against the Trump administration on a variety of issues, including health care, immigration and the environment. (NAN)

_AUG 23, 2019 @16:44 GMT |

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