Judge rejects Donald Trump request for long-term detention of immigrant children | The Indian Express

Judge rejects Donald Trump request for long-term detention of immigrant children | The Indian Express

Judge rejects Donald Trump request for long-term detention of immigrant children

Los Angeles US District Court Judge Dolly Gee dismissed as "dubious" and "unconvincing" the US Justice Department's arguments to modify a 1997 settlement that says children can only be held in immigration detention for up to 20 days.

By: Reuters | Published: July 10, 2018 8:08:10 am

The government made the request in June to allow it to keep underage migrants in detention alongside parents, after a public outcry over its policy of separating children from parents who entered the United States illegally.

A US federal judge on Monday rejected the Trump administration’s request to allow long-term detention of illegal immigrant children, a setback for President Donald Trump’s executive order to end the separation of immigrant families.

Los Angeles US District Court Judge Dolly Gee dismissed as “dubious” and “unconvincing” the US Justice Department’s arguments to modify a 1997 settlement that says children can only be held in immigration detention for up to 20 days.

This is a modal window.

This video is restricted from playing in your current geographic region

Error Code: PLAYER_ERR_GEO_RESTRICTED

Session ID: 2018-07-10:809d0bcbacc7a6ef5505f730 Player Element ID:vjs_video_3

1m 18s

U.S. still holding 3,000 separated migrant children

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told reporters Thursday that migrant parents separated from their children will be moved to facilities near their children as the Trump Administration scrambles to meet a deadline to reunify the families.

The government made the request in June to allow it to keep underage migrants in detention alongside parents, after a public outcry over its policy of separating children from parents who entered the United States illegally.

“It is apparent that the Defendants’ Application is a cynical attempt to shift responsibility to the Judiciary for over 20 years of Congressional inaction and ill-considered Executive action that have led to the current stalemate,” Gee, the daughter of Chinese immigrants, said in her ruling.

The government asked Gee to suspend the Flores settlement’s requirement that immigrant children be held only in facilities that meet state child welfare licensing regulations, so as to allow whole families to be detained together.

Gee, who was appointed to the bench by President Barack Obama, said the government had known for years that there was “no state licensing readily available for facilities that house both adults and children.”

For all the latest World News, download Indian Express App