13 Dec 2021
Flores Settlement News
Camilo Montoya-Galvez, CBS News, Dec. 11, 2021
"Amid pressure from advocates, the Biden administration is reversing course on plans to implement Trump-era regulations that would terminate a long-standing court settlement designed to protect migrant children in U.S. custody, two people familiar with the matter told CBS News. The 2019 Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) rule was part of a pair of regulations designed to replace the landmark Flores Settlement Agreement, which has governed the care of children in U.S. immigration custody since 1997 through strict standards for government shelters and detention sites. On Friday, the administration omitted the HHS rule from its fall unified agenda of regulations, despite including it in the spring agenda earlier this year. The decision to discard the Trump-era rule came after months of internal debate, a Biden administration official familiar with the deliberations told CBS News. ... In a filing late Friday, the Justice Department confirmed the Biden administration would no longer "seek to terminate" the Flores agreement through the 2019 rules. Instead, the department lawyers said, the administration will consider "future rulemaking."