IMMIGRATION/LEGAL: “Undocumented immigrant children detained by federal authorities are entitled to hearings to determine whether they should remain confined, a federal appeals court ruled on Wednesday [7-5-17].
A three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco, ruled that immigration authorities must abide by a 1997 legal settlement that established a policy for the detention, release and treatment of minors in immigration custody.
That agreement, named the Flores settlement after the teenage girl who brought the original case, stipulated that a child in deportation proceedings be afforded a bond hearing before an immigration judge.
The federal government had argued that Congress passed laws in 2002 and 2008 that abrogated the settlement, terminating the minors’ right to a bond hearing.
The Ninth Circuit panel disagreed, saying that neither law abolished the bond-hearing requirement for unaccompanied minors.”
-Miriam Jordan, “Detained Immigrant Children Are Entitled to Hearings, Court Rules,” The New York Times online, July 5, 2017