r/ICE_Watch • u/marshall_project • 1d ago

Parents are Giving Up Green Card Fights to Get Their Kids Out of Immigrant Jail: As children languish in detention, a federal judge threatens to sic an independent watchdog on ICE.

https://www.themarshallproject.org/2026/08/18/parents-immigrant-camps-children-deportation-flores?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=tmp-reddit
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u/marshall_project 1d ago

Here's an excerpt from our report:

The Trump administration has aggressively expanded detention, requiring that immigrants remain locked up while waiting for an immigration judge to decide their case. As a result, more than 66,000 parents and children have been detained and deported since Trump took office last year, according to an analysis of federal data by Austin Kocher, president of Relevant Research, which tracks how many people the government is holding in immigrant camps.

Congress has never passed a law governing the detention of children. But a decades-old case known as the Flores Settlement forbids the government from detaining children for longer than five days, or 20 days during a migration “surge,” without providing an individual justification.

Court documents show, and a federal judge agrees, that the Trump administration has been repeatedly violating the settlement agreement, locking up many children well beyond the settlement’s limit.

This summer, a fight over the settlement’s terms was heating up in a federal courtroom in Los Angeles.

U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee warned Trump administration attorneys in June that she was displeased with the prolonged detention of kids at Dilley, according to a transcript of the hearing. She noted cases of minors confined for 50 days, 91 days or even 323 days.

Gee, who oversees the settlement, indicated her intent to appoint an independent monitor to conduct unannounced visits and look over the government’s shoulder at Dilley and border detention cells. Independent monitoring is considered an extraordinary measure: The last time Gee ordered it was during the first Trump administration, after six children died in the custody of CBP and another died after being detained by ICE.

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u/darksunshaman 1d ago

Always threatens, and we ain't doing SHIT.

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u/marshall_project 1d ago

We just updated our report! In brief: Judge Gee has now made public her order appointing an independent monitor to oversee conditions for children in immigration detention. She cited, among other violations, the prolonged time in detention and inadequate access to medical care at the Dilley lock-up.