{"id":21963,"date":"2019-10-03T13:53:29","date_gmt":"2019-10-03T17:53:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/?p=21963"},"modified":"2019-10-03T15:27:28","modified_gmt":"2019-10-03T19:27:28","slug":"detention-flores-settlement-asylum-immigrationreform-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2019\/10\/03\/detention-flores-settlement-asylum-immigrationreform-com\/","title":{"rendered":"Why a Judge Blocking Changes to the Flores Settlement Agreement is Worse Than You Think"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A federal judge\u2019s move to block the Trump administration from detaining illegal alien family units for longer than a 20-day period received a considerable amount of praise<\/a> from the mainstream media, but their reporting omitted describing the consequences of this erratic decision. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is clear from the exponential increase in asylum claims in recent years (which remain completely unrelated to circumstances in home countries) that \u201casylum loopholes\u201d are the main factor contributing to the nation\u2019s border crisis. Right up there with the gaping asylum loopholes, the Flores Settlement Agreement is almost unanimously<\/a> discussed as the key loophole incentivizing migrants to come to the U.S. border at unprecedented rates. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The original 1997 Flores\nSettlement Agreement, implementing a Supreme Court decision, pertained to the\ndetention of unaccompanied minors. However, in 2015, Federal Judge Dolly Gee\nruled that a 20-limit on detention of minors must also apply to children who\nare accompanied by a parent or another guardian \u2013 a ruling that was agreed to\nby the Obama administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seeing that immigration\nexperts from all different backgrounds frequently highlight this loophole, it\nis unconscionable that a single unelected federal judge would still strike down\nefforts to reform it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The agreement mandating that children traveling with adults must be released from detention after 20 days has fueled the explosion in asylum seekers in recent years. Under Judge Gee\u2019s 2015 Flores ruling, arriving with a child is a virtual \u201cget out of jail free\u201d card. Since immigration hearings typically take around 50 days<\/a>, nearly all detained family units are released into the interior of the country before their hearing is complete and the vast majority disappear<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now that Judge Gee, an Obama appointee<\/a>, has stymied the Trump administration\u2019s efforts to reform this policy, three significant negative outcomes are expected to result from her decision: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

1) The nation\u2019s immigration\ncourt backlog will worsen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n