Padilla, Schiff Join Amicus Brief Urging Ninth Circuit Court to Affirm Critical Protections for Children in Immigration Detention

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senators Alex Padilla, Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, and Adam Schiff (both D-Calif.) joined a group of 24 other Senators 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 one of the most effective protections for detained noncitizen children. Senators Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Ranking Member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, led the amicus brief.

The Senators filed the amicus brief in the Ninth Circuit case Flores v. Bondi, in which the Department of Justice (DOJ) is claiming that the detention funding in Republicans' billionaire-first One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) Act overrode the protections provided in the 1997 Flores Settlement Agreement. The amicus brief rejects the Trump Administration's baseless claims, explains that the reconciliation process cannot be used for such policy overhauls, and emphasizes that a policy override, like the one the government is claiming exists, would have been stricken from the bill.

"Appellants' reliance on the OBBB Act as evidence of changed circumstances rests on a fundamental misunderstanding of the budget reconciliation process and its constraints. Because the bill was enacted through reconciliation, its provisions were limited to budgetary matters-appropriations for detention capacity, not changes to legal standards governing detention," wrote the Senators. "A provision terminating the Settlement would be a major substantive policy change that could not have survived the reconciliation process. Accordingly, the OBBB Act cannot constitute a changed circumstance warranting termination of the Settlement."

While the Trump Administration argued that Congress approved family detention by appropriating funds for family residential centers in the OBBB Act, the Senators emphasized that the section of the bill in question did not create a new detention directive or authorize any new program. Instead, the bill appropriated money for detention capacity that was already authorized by law. Therefore, the Senators argued that the Court should not equate this appropriation with a repeal of the Flores settlement.

"The distinction between appropriating funds and amending substantive law matters enormously in the reconciliation context," continued the Senators. "Congress appropriated $45 billion for detention capacity, including family residential centers. But this appropriation does not supersede whatever legal standards otherwise govern such detention. Accordingly, the OBBB Act's appropriation for detention capacity does not authorize detention of children in violation of the Flores Settlement, eliminate licensing requirements for facilities, or repeal the other substantive protections secured by the Settlement. Congress regularly appropriates funds for activities that remain subject to independent legal requirements. Appropriating money for federal construction projects does not exempt those projects from environmental review. Appropriating money to expand the federal workforce does not displace existing collective bargaining agreements. And appropriating money for detention does not eliminate the legal standards governing how that detention must be conducted-including the Settlement's requirements for the treatment of children."

In addition to Padilla, Schiff, Merkley, Durbin, and Peters, the amicus brief was signed by Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and U.S. Senators Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).

Senators Padilla and Schiff have strongly opposed President Trump's cruel and indiscriminate mass deportation agenda and denial of basic services for detained individuals. Last week, Padilla and Schiff conducted an oversight visit to the largest detention center in California, located in California City, to learn firsthand of the concerns surrounding the inhumane conditions detained individuals are facing at the facility. The Senators investigated reports of unsanitary and unsafe facility conditions, inadequate medical and mental health care, insufficient access to legal counsel, a severe lack of accommodations for people with disabilities, and the unnecessary use of solitary confinement. During the visit, they met with dozens of Californians and other detained individuals, many with no criminal record, whom ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) have swept up indiscriminately amid the Trump Administration's mass detention and deportation campaign.

Earlier this week, Senators Padilla and Booker introduced the Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act to end the use of private, for-profit detention facilities, prohibit the practice of detaining families, and ensure due process for detained individuals. Last year, Padilla and Schiff introduced the Restoring Access to Detainees Act, a bill to ensure the Department of Homeland Security allows detained noncitizens to contact legal counsel and their families.

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

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