Cortez Masto Joins Amicus Brief Urging Circuit Court to Affirm the Critical Protections of Minors in Immigration Detention

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) joined an amicus brief led by U.S. Senators Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), and Gary Peters (D-Mich.) urging the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold the 1997 Flores Settlement Agreement, which sets critical minimum standards for children in immigration detention.

The Senators are filing the amicus brief in the Ninth Circuit Case Flores v. Bondi, in which the opponents claim that the detention funding in the Republicans' One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBB 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.

"A provision terminating the [Flores] 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," the Senators wrote.

The full text of the brief can be found here.

Senator Cortez Masto is an attorney with decades of legal experience. She was admitted to the Nevada bar in 1990 and served two terms as Attorney General of Nevada. As senator, she has consistently fought for the rights of hardworking immigrant communities, including TPS and DACA recipients. She called on both the Biden and Trump Administrations to protect DACA recipients, TPS holders and other immigrants. She has worked to pass meaningful immigration reform that balances critical border security measures with a path to citizenship for Dreamers, TPS holders, and essential workers.

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