Finally, a Final Rule to Fix the Flores Loophole
But there are hurdles ahead
By Andrew R. Arthur on August 22, 2019
The administration announced yesterday that it was going to issue a rule that would finalize a regulation that would replace the settlement agreement in Flores v. Reno (the Flores Settlement Agreement or FSA), an almost 22-year-old action that has been subject to numerous "interpretations" by the courts over more than two decades. One of the decisions in that case is the key contributor to the huge numbers of family units (FMUs, that is, an adult migrant traveling with a child or children) that have flooded the Southwest border over the last two years. This administrative action, while overdue, will alleviate the strain on U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) resources, and in particular U.S. Border Patrol agents and facilities, that this massive influx of illegal migrants has caused.
As my colleague Matt Sussis explained in 2015:
https://cis.org/Arthur/Finally-Final-Rule-Fix-Flores-Loophole
