Several of California's elected representatives decried an announcement Wednesday by the Trump administration of a new rule that could allow children to be locked up indefinitely in family immigration detention centers while their cases are heard in the courts.
If implemented, the rule would end a decades-old legal agreement, known as the Flores Settlement, that says children in immigration detention must be promptly released or transferred to state-licensed facilities for minors. Courts have interpreted the agreement to mean migrant kids should not be locked up in unlicensed detention for more than 20 days.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom said the Trump administration’s move was “simply wrong and immoral.”
“It’s wrongheaded,” Newsom said while visiting students at an elementary school in Paradise. “It’s consistent with bad decision-making (by) the administration on this topic.”
The new rule is scheduled to take effect 60 days after it is published in the Federal Register, reportedly later this week. The state Attorney General's Office didn't say if it would sue over the rule, but lawsuits are widely expected to delay its implementation.