In 1985, a 15-year-old Salvadoran girl fleeing civil war in her country inadvertently came to represent all children detained by U.S. immigration authorities after being strip searched every day and housed with adult men while in prolonged government custody.
The resulting Flores agreement, as the class-action court settlement came to be known after the girl, Jenny Lisette Flores, has since served to protect the rights of minors who end up in the custody of immigration authorities, setting the terms of their care and release.
On Thursday, the Trump administration took the first steps to get out from under that 1997 consent decree, filing new proposed rules on the treatment of minors that immigrant advocates said could lead to more children being detained for extended periods of time.
The move, which is virtually guaranteed to lead to a court fight, comes as the government is still scrambling to undo the aftermath of its widely condemned “zero tolerance” measures to separate children from their parents at the border and prosecute adults who crossed illegally.
The proposed rules could allow minors to be held indefinitely along with their parents, beyond the current limit, by relaxing the licensing requirements of facilities in which immigrant children can be detained. The Flores agreement requires that migrant children be released “without unnecessary delay” or placed in licensed facilities within five days, and during an emergency or influx of immigrant minors arriving at the border, within 20 days.