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U.S. Appeals Judge's Rejection of ‘Cynical’ Bid to Detain Minors

U.S. Appeals Judge's Rejection of ‘Cynical’ Bid to Detain Minors

(Bloomberg) -- As the Trump administration tries again to undo longstanding ground rules for detaining immigrant children, it’s going over the head of the federal judge who called its maneuvering “cynical.”

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen filed notice Thursday that she will ask an appeals court to set aside a Los Angeles judge’s July 9 ruling that rejected the government’s plan to get around a 1997 court agreement limiting its ability to hold minors in immigration jails.

Earlier in the day, Nielsen’s department released a proposed regulation that would do away with the so-called Flores settlement and allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain children with their parents indefinitely while immigration proceedings are pending.

U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee in her July decision denied the U.S.’s request to modify the settlement as "wholly without merit" and faulted the administration for an “ill-considered executive action” that led to the separation of children from their parents when families were apprehended trying to cross the Mexican border.

To contact the reporter on this story: Edvard Pettersson in Los Angeles at epettersson@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Elizabeth Wollman at ewollman@bloomberg.net, Peter Blumberg

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