Preserve the Flores Settlement Agreement and Enforce Humane Detention Standards

I am writing to urge you to protect the Flores Settlement Agreement and ensure rigorous oversight of Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities. The FSA, signed on January 28, 1997, established critical national standards for the treatment of minors in federal custody, requiring their release without unnecessary delay and placement in the least restrictive setting appropriate to their needs. Recent years have exposed dangerous failures in these facilities. In 2017, Judge Dolly Gee found that children in CBP custody lacked adequate food, clean water, and basic hygiene items, ordering the government to improve conditions. In June 2019, Department of Justice attorney Sarah Fabian argued that the government was not required to provide detained migrant children with toothbrushes, soap, or adequate bedding. This position sparked nationwide outrage and was ultimately rejected when a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit upheld Judge Gee's order on August 15, 2019, requiring immigration authorities to provide minors with these basic necessities. The Flores Agreement requires provision of adequate food, drinking water, medical assistance, toilets, temperature control, supervision, and contact with family members. It mandates a 20-day limit on detention and prioritizes release to parents, legal guardians, or other adult relatives. These protections exist because children are particularly vulnerable and deserve humane treatment regardless of their immigration status. Any attempt to weaken or terminate the Flores Settlement Agreement would eliminate the only enforceable national standards protecting detained children. Without these court-supervised protections, there would be no mechanism to prevent the conditions Judge Gee documented or to ensure children receive basic necessities like soap and toothbrushes. I ask you to publicly oppose any efforts to modify or terminate the Flores Settlement Agreement and to support increased congressional oversight of CBP and ICE detention facilities. Children in federal custody deserve safe, humane conditions with adequate food, water, medical care, and temperature control. These are not luxuries but fundamental requirements of decency.