August 21, 2019
Today, the Trump Administration announced proposed amendments to the Flores agreement, a decades-old court settlement that prohibits the government from detaining children for more than 20 days. The new policy would allow migrant families and children to be detained indefinitely. Sandy Santana, Executive Director of Children’s Rights, issued this statement:
No amount of time is safe for children to be detained in institutions: each day spent in detention takes a profound toll on children’s mental health and emotional development. Indefinite detention of children and their families upends longstanding legal precedent and is a blatant attack on human rights. There is no evidence that this cruel, inhumane policy will deter immigration, yet we know it will prolong the trauma of children and their families fleeing violence.
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