Jenny L. Flores, et al. v. Merrick Garland, et al.

Overview

U.S. District Court, Central District of California, April 3, 2024): This decision comes through the 1997 Flores Settlement, which established national minimum standards for the treatment, placement, and release of detained immigrant children. The federal district court maintains ongoing supervision of the federal government’s compliance with the settlement.  In this litigation, plaintiffs challenged as a violation of the settlement the federal government’s practice of detaining immigrant minors in open-air settings. The Court ruled that all minors detained by the Department of Human Services (DHS) in open air detention sites are in US custody and therefore entitled to rights and protections guaranteed by the settlement. The Court found that DHS is violating the settlement by placing children in open air detention and ordered DHS to provide those children safe and sanitary conditions, including indoor facilities. Read the full order here.

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