Houston Chronicle by Taylor Goldenstein Aug. 21, 2019
Ken Cuccinelli, acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said Thursday there is space immediately available in existing detention centers to accommodate immigrant families that will be held for as long as it takes for their cases to be resolved, under a new rule being enacted by the Trump administration.
The departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services have said they will issue a rule Friday backing out of the 1997 Flores settlement, which requires the government to detain children and families in the least restrictive settings and does not allow families to be held for more than 20 days.
At an event sponsored by the Austin-based conservative think tank Texas Public Policy Foundation, Cuccinelli said the restrictions of the Flores settlement are “major catalysts to the crisis at the border.â€
“When you’re back in your home neighborhood in — pick a country — Honduras, you now know you can’t just come up with the kids and assume after 20 days you’re going to be released,†Cuccinelli said. “That assumption is gone as of yesterday … It is a tremendous deterrent.â€
Immigration advocates and Democrats in Congress have decried the withdrawal of the Flores settlement as cruel; they’ve also warned that it will allow for worse detention conditions.
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