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Statement

Calculated and Cruel: Trump’s Flores Regulations Would Mean More Jails, More Human Rights Violations, More Mistreatment of Immigrant Children

September 6, 2018
Immigration

Lisa Lederer, 202-371-1996

Statement from Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, CEO and executive director of MomsRising, an online and on-the-ground organization of more than one million mothers and their families, on the Flores regulations the Trump administration proposed today:

“America’s moms will fight the Trump administration proposal, released today, to replace the Flores Settlement Agreement with regulations that subject many more immigrant children to abuse, neglect and incarceration. Although the Trump administration has violated it time and again, the Flores Settlement requires our government to prioritize child welfare when it takes custody of immigrant children. Replacing it with these regulations would be calculated and cruel. In fact, these regulations would sanction the kind of human rights violations the administration has committed this year by separating children from their parents, imprisoning families in unsafe conditions, and denying health care to children and families who are being detained.

“Make no mistake: The regulations issued today will bring more trauma, torment and suffering to children and families seeking asylum, denying them basic rights and protections and allowing for human rights abuses such as holding children in detention for longer periods of time.

“Specifically, they allow the administration to jail families for long periods in harsh conditions, weaken protections for immigrant children being held by the government, and license jails that may not be safe, that would then be used to detain families indefinitely.

“The kinds of human rights violations these regulations would sanction have horrified, saddened and angered moms and the entire country. We will not allow them to become official policy or to continue. Moms across the nation are outraged by President Trump’s brutal anti-immigrant policies, which too often target mothers and children. MomsRising has collected more than 150,000 member signatures on petitions in support of immigrant families. Our members have hand-delivered those petitions to members of Congress in 22 states and organized and participated in demonstrations across the country, calling on the administration to end family separation and detention and uphold our values.

“We will fight these new regulations as well, and the administration that supports them. Every asylum-seeking child and family deserves compassion, dignity and respect. Separating families and abusing children is a choice we don’t need to keep making. We know how to fairly examine each case in a safe space -- and we must.” 

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MomsRising.org is an on-the-ground and online grassroots organization of more than a million people who are working to increase family economic security, decrease discrimination against women and moms, and to build a nation where businesses and families can thrive. Established in 2006, MomsRising and its members are organizing and speaking out to improve public policy and to change the national dialogue on issues that are critically important to America’s families, including criminal justice reform, immigration policy reform, and gun safety. MomsRising is working for paid family and medical leave, affordable, high quality childcare and early learning, and for an end to the wage and hiring discrimination which penalizes women — particularly moms and women of color — and so many others. MomsRising advocates for access to healthy food for all kids, health care for all, earned sick days, and breastfeeding rights so that all children can have a healthy start. MomsRising maintains a Spanish language website: MamásConPoder.org. Sign up online at www.MomsRising.org — and follow us on our blog, and on Twitter and Facebook.