Heinrich, Luján Join Effort to Uphold Protections for Kids in Immigration Detention

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and U.S. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) joined 25 of their Senate colleagues in filing an amicus brief to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals urging the Court to uphold the 1997 Flores Settlement Agreement, which sets critical minimum standards for children in immigration detention and continues to be the single most effective protection for detained noncitizen children.

The senators are filing the amicus brief in the Ninth Circuit case, Flores v. Bondi, where the Trump Administration claims that the detention funding in Republican's "One, Big Beautiful Bill Act" overrode the protections provided in the 1997 Flores Settlement Agreement. The amicus brief rejects the government's baseless claims and explains that the reconciliation process cannot be used for such policy overhauls and that such a policy override would have been stricken from the bill.

"[The Administration] argue[s] that by appropriating funds for family residential centers, Congress expressed approval of family detention. But Section 90003 did not authorize any new program or establish any new directive with respect to detention-it appropriated money for detention capacity already authorized by law," the senators wrote to the Court. "Courts should not infer that an appropriation implicitly repeals substantive law."

"If Congress sought to override the Flores Settlement or eliminate certain protections for detained children, it would have legislated in the same manner-expressly and through regular order," the senators concluded.

The amicus brief was led by U.S. Senators Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), and Gary Peters (D-Mich.). Alongside Heinrich and Luján, it was joined by U.S. Senators Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Dick Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).

The full amicus brief the senators filed to the Ninth Circuit can be found here.

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