DOJ Threatens More Migrant Family Separations After Judge's Scathing Ruling

[DonViejo]

By Alice Ollstein | July 10, 2018 11:01 am

In the wake of a federal judge slapping down the Trump administration’s attempt to roll back decades-old protections for children in immigration detention, the Trump administration is threatening to present migrant parents with a choice between indefinite detention with their children or continued separation — leaving out the third option used by previous administrations of supervised release.


“The court does appear to acknowledge that parents who cross the border will not be released and must choose between remaining in family custody with their children pending immigration proceedings or requesting separation from their children so the child may be placed with a sponsor,” Justice Department spokesman Devin O’Malley said Link to tweet
/photo/1" target="_blank">in a statement Monday night.

The Trump administration argued unsuccessfully in a California federal court that they should be allowed to modify the Flores settlement — a 1997 ruling upheld in 2016 that states that immigrants younger than 18 years old can’t be held in immigration custody for longer than 20 days. It also set standards for the food, medical care and other conditions of their detention, saying the government can’t hold children in facilities that can’t pass state child welfare licensing regulations.

Without revealing whether or not the administration plans to appeal the ruling to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, O’Malley said: “We disagree with the court’s ruling declining to amend the Flores Agreement to recognize the current crisis of families making the dangerous and unlawful journey across our southern border.” But the fiery Monday night ruling from U.S. District Court Judge Dolly Gee did not give the administration the green light for indefinite detention and separations the DOJ is claiming.

In fact, she wrote that even if there were an immigration “crisis” as the administration claims — an assertion not supported by data — this “does not support a blanket non-release policy.” She later added that “absolutely nothing prevents Defendants from reconsidering their current blanket policy of family detention and reinstating prosecutorial discretion” — referring to past administrations’ policy of allowing the majority of immigrant families who are not considered a danger or a flight risk to be freed on supervised released until their immigration or asylum hearings.

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https://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/doj-threatens-more-migrant-family-separations-after-judges-scathing-ruling

[nonviolence9]

1. unprecedented cruelty and incompetence

God give us a Democratic House and Senate in November

[world wide wally]

2. America is barely surviving on life support and anybody with any power to save us is

rendered impotent as the GOP tramples our Constitution in front of us. Eventually. It is going to take an actual revolution to restore the country to what it was always supposed to stand for...and I am not sure Americans have the stomach for that.
The worst part is that Trump and the GOP know that too.