The Trump administration proposed a new rule on Thursday that would allow it to get around restrictions that prevent immigrant children from being held in federal detention for more than 20 days.

The proposal would circumvent rules established by a federal court settlement – known as the Flores settlement – that limited the detention of children and families for more than 20 days.

The proposed change is likely to face legal challenges from immigrant rights activists who oppose detaining children.

U.S. District Court Judge Dolly M. Gee has already denied a request by the Trump administration earlier this year to allow the government to detain families for longer periods than allowed under Flores.

The Flores settlement played a significant role in the Trump administration's now-defunct policy of separating children from parents at the Southern U.S. border.

The settlement requires that migrant children be held in the 'least restrictive' environment possible and precludes their detainment for more than 20 days – even if they are with their parents.

When the Trump administration separated immigrant children from their parents earlier this year, officials pointed to the settlement, saying they had to separate them because it would violate Flores to detain families together.

Administration officials also said that their actions under the 'zero tolerance' immigration policy were a deterrent to parents who would bring their children across the border to avoid being detained.

In other words, the administration sought to end a practice under the Obama administration of 'catch and release,' in which families were typically allowed parole after illegal border crossings.

'Today, legal loopholes significantly hinder the department's ability to appropriately detain and promptly remove family units that have no legal basis to remain in the country,' said the Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristjen Nielsen. 'This rule addresses one of the primary pull factors for illegal immigration and allows the federal government to enforce immigration laws as passed by Congress.'

The proposed changes would allow U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to establish more family detention facilities where immigrant parents and children could be held together.

The U.S. currently has three family detention centers, which have a total capacity of roughly 3,500 beds.

Homeland Security officials are seeking 12,000 additional beds to house families, in addition to enough space to hold 20,000 minors who entered the country by themselves.

The proposed rule change would allow the government to hold immigrants indefinitely while their cases litigated in immigration court.

Officials said the proposed rule changes would 'satisfy the purpose' of Flores while also making certain that immigrant children 'are treated with dignity, respect and concern for their particular vulnerability as minors.'

Under the administration’s zero-tolerance policy, more than 2,600 children were separated from their parents.

Broad public outrage and widespread protests eventually forced Donald Trump to issue an executive order on June 20 ending the practice. Nearly 500 children remain separated from their parents and in government custody. </s> The Trump administration said Thursday it is preparing to circumvent limits on the government’s ability to hold minors in immigration jails by withdrawing from the Flores Settlement Agreement, the federal consent decree that has shaped detention standards for underage migrants since 1997.

The maneuver is almost certain to land the administration back in court, where U.S. District Court Judge Dolly M. Gee, who oversees the agreement, has rejected attempts to extend the amount of time migrant children can be held with their parents beyond the current limit of 20 days.

But under changes proposed Thursday by the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services, the administration said it would issue new regulations that “satisfy the basic purpose” of the Flores settlement and ensure migrant children “are treated with dignity, respect and special concern for their particular vulnerability as minors.”

“Today, legal loopholes significantly hinder the Department’s ability to appropriately detain and promptly remove family units that have no legal basis to remain in the country,” said DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, in a statement. “This rule addresses one of the primary pull factors for illegal immigration and allows the federal government to enforce immigration laws as passed by Congress.”

The proposal sets up a new immigration battle in court, and comes less than three months after the Trump administration’s short-lived attempt to halt an increase in illegal migration by separating children from parents who entered unlawfully. The practice was widely condemned and forced the administration to reverse course and regroup.

[‘I want to die’: Was a 5-year-old drugged after being separated from his dad at the border?]

Thursday’s proposed changes amount to the administration’s new attempt to eliminate what it views as major obstacles to effective immigration enforcement. Homeland Security officials say the limits on detaining families have effectively sent a message to would-be migrants that any parent who brings a child can expect to be quickly released from custody after entering the country illegally.

The changes proposed by the administration would allow U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to expand its family detention facilities in order to keep parents and children together in custody for lengthier periods. ICE currently has three such facilities, which it calls “family residential centers,” with a combined capacity of about 3,500 beds.

But those facilities are almost always full, and the limitations on child detention under the Flores settlement have been a disincentive to build more. The settlement also mandates that children can only be held in licensed facilities, and the government has struggled to find states willing to do so.

While states typically license child-care facilities, none currently issues licenses to family detention centers.

According to the changes proposed Thursday, the government will ensure new detention facilities meet current standards, “as evaluated by a third-party entity engaged by ICE.” The announcement does not indicate who the third party would be.

Homeland Security officials say that will ensure that those families, many of whom are Central Americans seeking asylum, appear in immigration court.

The Trump administration said Thursday’s proposed changes would also “formalize” the way Health and Human Services cares for migrant children in its custody. The agency oversees a network of about 100 shelters for underage migrants who arrive without a parent or who have been separated. But in recent months allegations of mistreatment and sexual abuse at several shelters have emerged, and HHS has been sharply criticized for not keeping better track of children after they are released to family members or other approved “sponsors.”

The administration's plans to lift limits on child detention is likely to trigger new legal challenges and could revive still-simmering anger over the Trump administration’s separation of 2,600 migrant children from their parents under a border crackdown this spring. As of last week, more than 500 children were still in federal custody without their parents.

[Still separated: Nearly 500 migrant children taken from their parents remain in U.S. custody]

The 1997 Flores Settlement Agreement resulted from a class-action lawsuit over the treatment of migrant children in federal custody.

The proposed regulations would not take effect immediately. Publishing them in the Federal Register triggers a 60-day period for public comments. Then, advocates say, the Flores counsel who represents all migrant children in federal custody would have 45 days to challenge those regulations in court.

The proposal comes weeks after the Trump administration failed to obtain permission to detain children for unspecified periods of time from Judge Gee in Los Angeles.

Justice Department lawyers had asked for permission to detain children and parents together until their cases are adjudicated, a process that can take months.

In July, Gee sharply rebuked the Justice Department's request, calling it “a cynical attempt, on an ex parte basis, 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.”

Advocates say the Trump administration has the authority to create regulations to replace the court agreement, but they worry that officials will ignore the substantive protections in its quest to deport immigrants.

In August, the mother of a Guatemalan toddler filed a claim alleging the little girl died in May as a result of negligent medical care while detained with hundreds of other families in Texas.

“The Trump administration is seeking to expand its power to jail families for longer in worse conditions and lock up children indefinitely in unlicensed and inhumane facilities,” said Ai-jen Poo, director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, in a news conference last month.

“We're talking about an administration that intentionally and forcibly separated children from their parents knowing the torment and trauma that would cause and we're now allowing them to set a new standard ... of care for immigrant children.” </s> The Trump administration is seeking to allow US authorities to keep immigrant children in detention longer than the current 20-day limit, a move critics denounced as "sickening" and "cruel".

The US government said on Thursday it will abandon a longstanding federal court agreement that limits how long immigrant children can be kept locked up.

"Today, legal loopholes significantly hinder the ... ability to appropriately detain and promptly remove family units that have no legal basis to remain in the country," Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen said.

The announcement also proposed new rules that would allow US authorities to detain minors during their immigration proceedings.

The regulations aim to end the Flores settlement, a 1997 court ruling that dictates the length of time and under what conditions immigrant children may be detained.

The agreement requires the government to place children with a close relative or family friend "without unnecessary delay", instead of detaining them, or to keep children already in custody in the "least restrictive conditions" possible.

The Flores agreement became an issue earlier this year when the Trump administration adopted a "zero-tolerance policy" of prosecuting anyone caught crossing illegally.

More than 2,900 children were separated from their parents, prompting international outrage and leading a federal judge to order reunification of the families in June.

More than 500 children were still separated from their parents in late August, according to reports.

The Trump administration plans to publish new regulations in the Federal Register on Friday, which will replace the Flores settlement.

The proposed regulations will also allow the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agency to detain children in facilities not licensed by state authorities to hold minors, a publicly available copy said.

Representative Paul Ryan, the highest ranking Republican in the US House of Representatives, said he "just heard about it [proposed regulations] this morning".

"My position's been really clear about this: we should not be separating people at the border. I believe that the administration also agrees," Ryan said.

The move angered immigrant rights activists and is likely to trigger another round of court battles.

"It is sickening to see the United States government looking for ways to jail more children for longer," said Omar Jadwat, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Immigrants' Rights Project.

"And it's yet another example of the Trump administration's hostility toward immigrants resulting in a policy incompatible with the most basic human values."

Jadwat accused the administration of "trying to expand the trauma it is inflicting on these children in order to deter other people from coming to the country".

Rachel Prandini, staff attorney at the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, told The Associated Press the erosion of Flores' protections would subject children to worsening conditions.

"The Trump administration's decision to exacerbate the suffering of kids - by imposing the cruel policy of family separation earlier this summer and now with this rule change to vastly expand detention of children - is horrifying," she said. </s> WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration said on Thursday that it plans to withdraw from a federal court agreement that strictly limits the conditions under which authorities can detain migrant children, and proposed new rules that it said would enable it to detain minors during their immigration proceedings.

The administration is targeting the Flores Settlement Agreement, a 1997 federal consent decree that places significant curbs on how long and in what conditions the government can detain migrant children as it seeks to dissuade migrants from crossing the U.S. southern border.

Immigrants and their advocates are expected to mount legal challenges to the administration’s effort to exit the agreement, which has been interpreted over the years to set a 20-day limit on detaining children who entered the country illegally, and also requires facilities that house migrant children to be licensed by a state authority.

Trump administration officials have repeatedly referred to the agreement’s standards as “loopholes” that attract migrants by forcing authorities to release people pending their immigration hearings.

On Thursday, the administration said in a regulatory filing it would seek to terminate the Flores settlement, and put forward regulations it said “parallel the relevant and substantive terms” of the agreement.

The new rules would ensure “that all juveniles in the government’s custody are treated with dignity, respect, and special concern for their particular vulnerability as minors,” the regulation said.

The administration earlier this year asked a federal court to ease the limits mandated by the Flores agreement, but the judge overseeing the agreement, U.S. District Court Judge Dolly M. Gee, rejected those requests.

That attempt by the administration came after it instituted a “zero-tolerance” policy at the U.S. border that led to the separation of thousands of migrant children from their parents. After intense public outcry over the policy, the administration was forced to abandon it, but hundreds of children remain separated from parents who were deported without them.

The regulation proposed on Thursday would create a new federal licensing system, so authorities could hold children with their parents in detention centers that are not licensed by state authorities to hold children.

“The goal is to provide materially identical assurances about the conditions of such facilities...and in turn to allow families to remain together during their immigration proceedings,” the rule states.

The public has 60 days to comment on the proposal, followed by a 45-day period before the court settlement is terminated. </s> The Trump administration said Thursday it is preparing to circumvent limits on the government's ability to hold minors in immigration jails by withdrawing from the Flores Settlement Agreement, the federal consent decree that has shaped detention standards for underage migrants since 1997.

The maneuver is almost certain to land the administration back in court, where U.S. District Court Judge Dolly Gee, who oversees the agreement, has rejected attempts to extend the amount of time migrant children can be held with their parents beyond the current limit of 20 days.

But under changes proposed Thursday by the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services, the administration said it would issue new regulations that "satisfy the basic purpose" of the Flores settlement and ensure migrant children "are treated with dignity, respect and special concern for their particular vulnerability as minors."

"Today, legal loopholes significantly hinder the Department's ability to appropriately detain and promptly remove family units that have no legal basis to remain in the country," said DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, in a statement. "This rule addresses one of the primary pull factors for illegal immigration and allows the federal government to enforce immigration laws as passed by Congress."

The proposal sets up a new immigration battle in court, and comes less than three months after the Trump administration's short-lived attempt to halt an increase in illegal migration by separating children from parents who entered unlawfully. The practice was widely condemned and forced the administration to reverse course and regroup.

Thursday's proposed changes amount to the administration's new attempt to eliminate what it views as major obstacles to effective immigration enforcement. Homeland Security officials say the limits on detaining families have effectively sent a message to would-be migrants that any parent who brings a child can expect to be quickly released from custody after entering the country illegally.

The changes proposed by the administration would allow U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to expand its family detention facilities in order to keep parents and children together in custody for lengthier periods. ICE currently has three such facilities, which it calls "family residential centers," with a combined capacity of about 3,500 beds.

But those facilities are almost always full, and the limitations on child detention under the Flores settlement have been a disincentive to build more. The settlement also mandates that children can only be held in licensed facilities, and the government has struggled to find states willing to do so.

While states typically license child-care facilities, none currently issues licenses to family detention centers.

According to the changes proposed Thursday, the government will ensure new detention facilities meet current standards, "as evaluated by a third-party entity engaged by ICE." The announcement does not indicate who the third party would be.

Homeland Security officials say that will ensure that those families, many of whom are Central Americans seeking asylum, appear in immigration court.

The Trump administration said Thursday's proposed changes would also "formalize" the way Health and Human Services cares for migrant children in its custody. The agency oversees a network of about 100 shelters for underage migrants who arrive without a parent or who have been separated. But in recent months allegations of mistreatment and sexual abuse at several shelters have emerged, and HHS has been sharply criticized for not keeping better track of children after they are released to family members or other approved "sponsors."

The administration's plans to lift limits on child detention is likely to trigger new legal challenges and could revive still-simmering anger over the Trump administration's separation of 2,600 migrant children from their parents under a border crackdown this spring. As of last week, more than 500 children were still in federal custody without their parents.

The 1997 Flores Settlement Agreement resulted from a class-action lawsuit over the treatment of migrant children in federal custody.

The proposed regulations would not take effect immediately. Publishing them in the Federal Register triggers a 60-day period for public comments. Then, advocates say, the Flores counsel who represents all migrant children in federal custody would have 45 days to challenge those regulations in court.

The proposal comes weeks after the Trump administration failed to obtain permission to detain children for unspecified periods of time from Judge Gee in Los Angeles.

Justice Department lawyers had asked for permission to detain children and parents together until their cases are adjudicated, a process that can take months.

In July, Gee sharply rebuked the Justice Department's request, calling it "a cynical attempt, on an ex parte basis, 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."

Advocates say the Trump administration has the authority to create regulations to replace the court agreement, but they worry that officials will ignore the substantive protections in its quest to deport immigrants.

In August, the mother of a Guatemalan toddler filed a claim alleging the little girl died in May as a result of negligent medical care while detained with hundreds of other families in Texas.

"The Trump administration is seeking to expand its power to jail families for longer in worse conditions and lock up children indefinitely in unlicensed and inhumane facilities," said Ai-jen Poo, director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, in a news conference last month.

"We're talking about an administration that intentionally and forcibly separated children from their parents knowing the torment and trauma that that would cause and we're now allowing them to set a new standard ... of care for immigrant children." </s> WASHINGTON (AP) - The Trump administration on Thursday moved to abandon a longstanding court settlement that limits how long immigrant children can be kept locked up, proposing new regulations that would allow the government to detain families until their immigration cases are decided.

 

 Homeland Security Department officials said that ending the so-called Flores agreement of 1997 will speed up the handling of immigration cases while also deterring people from illegally crossing the Mexican border.

 

 The move angered immigrant rights advocates and is all but certain to trigger a court battle.

 

 "It is sickening to see the United States government looking for ways to jail more children for longer," said Omar Jadwat, director of the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project. "And it's yet another example of the Trump administration's hostility toward immigrants resulting in a policy incompatible with the most basic human values."

 

 The Flores agreement requires the government to keep children in the least restrictive setting possible and to release them generally after 20 days in detention. For decades, because of those restrictions, many parents and children caught trying to slip into the country have been released into the U.S. while their asylum requests wind their way through the courts - a practice President Donald Trump has decried as "catch-and-release."

 

 Such cases can drag on for years, and some immigrants stop showing up to court when it becomes clear their asylum requests are going to be denied.

 

 The newly proposed rules would allow the government to hold families in detention until their cases are completed.

 

 Homeland Security did not say how long it expects families to be kept locked up. But immigration officials say asylum cases involving detained families move much more quickly, taking months instead of years to resolve, in part because there are none of the delays that result when immigrants set free in the U.S. fail to show up for a hearing.

 

 "Today, legal loopholes significantly hinder the department's ability to appropriately detain and promptly remove family units that have no legal basis to remain in the country," Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. "This rule addresses one of the primary pull factors for illegal immigration and allows the federal government to enforce immigration laws as passed by Congress."

 

 Earlier this summer, a federal judge in California rejected a request by the administration to modify Flores to allow for longer family detention. Administration officials say they have the authority to terminate the agreement, but that is likely to be tested in court.

 

 Peter Schey, an attorney representing detained immigrant children under the settlement and president of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, said he will oppose any effort to end Flores unless the government proposes acceptable regulations for the safe and humane treatment of youngsters.

 

 "Refugee children should not be made to suffer inhumane treatment and prolonged and unnecessary detention just to satisfy President Trump's zero-tolerance approach to refugees seeking safety in the United States from the violence and lawlessness spreading throughout Central America," Schey said.

 

 The Flores agreement became an issue last spring when the Trump administration adopted a policy of prosecuting anyone caught crossing illegally. More than 2,900 children were separated from their parents, prompting international outrage.

 

 Trump eventually backed down and stopped the separation of families. A federal judge ordered parents and children reunified; the government has said it has done so in as many cases as it could. But hundreds of parents were deported without their children, while others had criminal records or were not parents as they claimed to be, officials said.

 

 Because under Flores children cannot be kept in criminal custody with their parents or held for an extended period in immigration detention, the administration has limited options when dealing with families.

 

 The government operates three family detention centers, and they are mostly at capacity. Homeland Security and the Pentagon have been working to line up as many as 12,000 beds for family members at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas. Another request for up to 20,000 beds for youngsters who arrive without parents is also pending.

 

 The ACLU's Jadwat accused the administration of "trying to expand the trauma it is inflicting on these children in order to deter other people from coming to the country."

 

 Rachel Prandini, staff attorney at the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, said the erosion of Flores' protections would subject children to worsening conditions.

 

 "The Trump administration's decision to exacerbate the suffering of kids, by imposing the cruel policy of family separation earlier this summer and now with this rule change to vastly expand detention of children, is horrifying," she said.

 

 The regulations will be published in the Federal Register and will be subject to a 60-day public comment period starting Friday.

 

 ___

 

 Taxin reported from Santa Ana, Calif.

(Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.) </s> Colleen Long and Amy Taxin, The Associated Press 

 



WASHINGTON -- The Trump administration on Thursday moved to abandon a longstanding court settlement that limits how long immigrant children can be kept locked up, proposing new regulations that would allow the government to detain families until their immigration cases are decided.

Homeland Security Department officials said that ending the so-called Flores agreement of 1997 will speed up the handling of immigration cases while also deterring people from illegally crossing the Mexican border.

The move angered immigrant rights advocates and is all but certain to trigger a court battle.

"It is sickening to see the United States government looking for ways to jail more children for longer," said Omar Jadwat, director of the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project. "And it's yet another example of the Trump administration's hostility toward immigrants resulting in a policy incompatible with the most basic human values."

The Flores agreement requires the government to keep children in the least restrictive setting possible and to release them generally after 20 days in detention. For decades, because of those restrictions, many parents and children caught trying to slip into the country have been released into the U.S. while their asylum requests wind their way through the courts -- a practice President Donald Trump has decried as "catch-and-release."

Such cases can drag on for years, and some immigrants stop showing up to court when it becomes clear their asylum requests are going to be denied.

The newly proposed rules would allow the government to hold families in detention until their cases are completed.

Homeland Security did not say how long it expects families to be kept locked up. But immigration officials say asylum cases involving detained families move much more quickly, taking months instead of years to resolve, in part because there are none of the delays that result when immigrants set free in the U.S. fail to show up for a hearing.

"Today, legal loopholes significantly hinder the department's ability to appropriately detain and promptly remove family units that have no legal basis to remain in the country," Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. "This rule addresses one of the primary pull factors for illegal immigration and allows the federal government to enforce immigration laws as passed by Congress."

Earlier this summer, a federal judge in California rejected a request by the administration to modify Flores to allow for longer family detention. Administration officials say they have the authority to terminate the agreement, but that is likely to be tested in court.

Peter Schey, an attorney representing detained immigrant children under the settlement and president of the Center for Human Rights and constitutional Law, said he will oppose any effort to end Flores unless the government proposes acceptable regulations for the safe and humane treatment of youngsters.

"Refugee children should not be made to suffer inhumane treatment and prolonged and unnecessary detention just to satisfy President Trump's zero-tolerance approach to refugees seeking safety in the United States from the violence and lawlessness spreading throughout Central America," Schey said.

The Flores agreement became an issue last spring when the Trump administration adopted a policy of prosecuting anyone caught crossing illegally. More than 2,900 children were separated from their parents, prompting international outrage.

Trump eventually backed down and stopped the separation of families. A federal judge ordered parents and children reunified; the government has said it has done so in as many cases as it could. But hundreds of parents were deported without their children, while others had criminal records or were not parents as they claimed to be, officials said.

Because under Flores children cannot be kept in criminal custody with their parents or held for an extended period in immigration detention, the administration has limited options when dealing with families.

The government operates three family detention centres, and they are mostly at capacity. Homeland Security and the Pentagon have been working to line up as many as 12,000 beds for family members at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas. Another request for up to 20,000 beds for youngsters who arrive without parents is also pending.

The ACLU's Jadwat accused the administration of "trying to expand the trauma it is inflicting on these children in order to deter other people from coming to the country."

Rachel Prandini, staff attorney at the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, said the erosion of Flores' protections would subject children to worsening conditions.

"The Trump administration's decision to exacerbate the suffering of kids, by imposing the cruel policy of family separation earlier this summer and now with this rule change to vastly expand detention of children, is horrifying," she said.

The regulations will be published in the Federal Register and will be subject to a 60-day public comment period starting Friday. </s> Los Angeles: US judge has ordered that migrant families separated at the border with Mexico under President Donald Trump's "zero tolerance" policy be reunited within 30 days.



 For children under five, reunification must take place within two weeks of the order issued Tuesday by US District Judge Dana Sabraw in San Diego.

Sabraw made the sternly worded decision in response to a suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of a seven-year-old girl who was separated from her Congolese mother and a 14-year-old boy who was separated from his Brazilian mother.The judge also issued an injunction against any more family separations, which was part of a policy under which anyone crossing the border illegally is detained and referred for criminal prosecution.US federal authorities have 10 days to allow parents to call their children if they are not already in touch with them, the judge said.Trump last week signed an executive order halting his government's practice of taking children away from parents who cross the border without papers, even to seek asylum. Many are destitute people fleeing gang violence and other turmoil in Central America.It was a rare retreat for Trump, who has made fighting immigration -- both illegal and legal -- one of the most sacred mantras of his fiercely US-centered policy agenda.But the order made no specific provisions for families already separated under the policy, which sparked heated criticism in America and worldwide as inhumane and even a form of child abuse.More than 2,000 children taken from their families remain under the care of federal authorities. Some are just toddlers, or even infants.The ACLU argued that the administration has no real plan for reuniting families.Every night small children "are crying themselves to sleep wondering if they will ever see their parents again," said ACLU lawyer Lee Gelernt.Now, the policy of detaining parents who cross illegally with children has been suspended, with authorities saying that among other factors they do not have space for all the families coming over from Mexico.Judge Sabraw was scathing in his criticism of the Trump policy of taking children away from their parents."The facts set forth before the court portray reactive governance -- responses to address a chaotic circumstance of the government's own making," Sabraw wrote in the 24-page ruling."They belie measured and ordered governance, which is central to the concept of due process enshrined in our Constitution," the judge added.The attorneys-general of 18 mainly Democratic states also filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging the Trump family separation policy.They argued that Trump's order halting the practice has so many caveats it is meaningless. It calls for money to be appropriated to reunite families but does not say how much or by when, and depends on a judge allowing indefinite detention of children, the officials wrote."Keeping children separated from their parents is inhumane, unconscionable and illegal -- and we're filing suit to stop it," wrote Attorney General Barbara Underwood of New York.Some 200 protesters turned out in Los Angeles to protest a visit by US Attorney General Jeff Sessions, one of the most visible faces of the Trump border control policy.Around 20 were arrested after defying police orders to disperse.Trump did score a big win on immigration Tuesday, however, as the US Supreme Court upheld the latest version of his travel ban targeting people from some Muslim-majority countries.By a 5-4 vote, the court's conservative majority said Trump was within his legal authority as president to issue such a ban.Trump pounced on the decision as an endorsement of his authority to defend national security and "a tremendous success and victory for the American people."Immigration has been among the thorniest issue in American politics for decades, with Congress repeatedly failing to pass comprehensive reforms.The House of Representatives intends to vote Wednesday on a broad immigration bill that ends family separations, but passage is in doubt. Should the bill fail, it would be a dramatic embarrassment for Trump's party.Hannah Hanmer, who was protesting with her baby in Los Angeles, said she was angry the government was trying "to remove human dignity from immigrants" arriving with children."I want to be one of the people who said no," the 26-year-old told AFP.(WAH) </s> A judge in California on Tuesday ordered U.S. border authorities to reunite separated families within 30 days, setting a hard deadline in a process that has so far yielded uncertainty about when children might again see their parents.

If children are younger than 5, they must be reunified within 14 days of the order issued Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw in San Diego. Sabraw, an appointee of President George W. Bush, also issued a nationwide injunction on future family separations, unless the parent is deemed unfit or doesn't want to be with the child. It also requires the government to provide phone contact between parents and their children within 10 days.

More than 2,000 children have been separated from their parents in recent weeks and placed in government-contracted shelters — hundreds of miles away, in some cases — under a now-abandoned policy toward families caught illegally entering the U.S.

Amid an international outcry, Trump last week issued an executive order to stop the separation of families and said parents and children will instead be detained together.

The lawsuit in San Diego involves a 7-year-old girl who was separated from her Congolese mother and a 14-year-old boy who was separated from his Brazilian mother.

Also Tuesday, 17 states, including New York and California, sued the Trump administration Tuesday to force it to reunite children and parents. The states, all led by Democratic attorneys general, joined Washington, D.C., in filing the lawsuit in federal court in Seattle, arguing that they are being forced to shoulder increased child welfare, education and social services costs.

"The administration's practice of separating families is cruel, plain and simple," New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said in a statement. "Every day, it seems like the administration is issuing new, contradictory policies and relying on new, contradictory justifications. But we can't forget: The lives of real people hang in the balance."

In a speech before the conservative Criminal Justice Legal Foundation in Los Angeles, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions defended the administration for taking a hardline stand on illegal immigration and said the voters elected President Donald Trump to do just that.

"This is the Trump era," he said. "We are enforcing our laws again. We know whose side we are on — so does this group — and we're on the side of police, and we're on the side of the public safety of the American people."

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for a comment on the multistate lawsuit.

Juan Sanchez, chief executive of the nation's largest shelters for migrant children, said he fears a lack of urgency by the U.S. government could mean it will take months to reunite families.

Sanchez with the nonprofit Southwest Key Programs said in an interview with The Associated Press that the government has no process in place to speed the return of children to their parents.

"It could take days," he said. "Or it could take a month, two months, six or even nine. I just don't know."

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told Congress on Tuesday that his department still has custody of 2,047 immigrant children separated from their parents at the border. That is only six fewer children than the number in HHS custody as of last Wednesday.

Democratic senators said that wasn't nearly enough progress.

"HHS, Homeland Security, and the Justice Department seem to be doing a lot more to add to the bedlam and deflect blame than they're doing to tell parents where their kids are," Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden said.

Under questioning, Azar refused to be pinned down on how long it will take to reunite families. He said his department does extensive vetting of parents to make sure they are not traffickers masquerading as parents.

Tens of thousands of Central American migrants traveling with children — as well as children traveling alone — are caught on the Mexican border each year. Many are fleeing gang violence in their home countries.

At a Texas detention facility, immigrant advocates complained that parents have gotten busy signals or no answers from a 1-800 number provided by federal authorities to get information about their children.

Attorneys have spoken to about 200 immigrants at the Port Isabel detention facility near Los Fresnos, Texas, since last week, and only a few knew where their children were being held, said Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg of the Legal Aid Justice Center in Virginia.

"The U.S. government never had any plan to reunite these families that were separated," Sandoval-Moshenberg said, and now it is "scrambling to undo this terrible thing that they have done."

A message left for HHS, which runs the hotline, was not immediately returned.

Many children in shelters in southern Texas have not had contact with their parents, though some have reported being allowed to speak with them in recent days, said Meghan Johnson Perez, director of the Children's Project for the South Texas Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project, which provides free legal services to minors.

"Things might be changing now. The agencies are trying to coordinate better," she said. "But the kids we have been seeing have not been in contact with the parents. They don't know where the parent is. They're just distraught. Their urgent need is just trying to figure out, 'Where is my parent?'"

Since calling for an end to the separations, administration officials have been casting about for detention space for migrants, with the Pentagon drawing up plans to hold as many as 20,000 at U.S. military bases.

At the same time, the administration has asked the courts to let it detain families together for an extended period while their immigration cases are resolved. Under a 1997 court settlement, children must be released from detention as quickly as possible, which generally has been construed to be within 20 days.

Outraged by the family separations, immigrant supporters have led protests in recent days in states such as Florida and Texas. In Los Angeles, police arrested 25 demonstrators at rally Tuesday ahead of Sessions' address.
The Trump administration proposes regulatory changes which would allow the children of illegal immigrants to be imprisoned for more than 20 days.