PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP IS TAKING ACTION TO CLOSE THE LOOPHOLES THAT FUEL THE HUMANITARIAN CRISIS ON OUR BORDER
“To protect these children from abuse, and stop this illegal flow, we must close these loopholes. This is an urgent humanitarian necessity.” – President Donald J. Trump
ENFORCING THE LAW AND KEEPING FAMILIES TOGETHER: President Donald J. Trump is taking action to ensure alien families can be kept together through their immigration proceedings.
- The Trump Administration is taking action to establish standards for family housing that will ensure alien families can be held together during immigration proceedings.
- This new rule will ensure alien children are safe, secure, and well cared for while detained.
- This action protects child welfare by closing an immigration loophole exploited by human smugglers.
- The Government will now seek to terminate the Flores Settlement Agreement, a loophole that results in most alien families being released into the country after 20 days.
- Court rulings have expanded the Flores agreement, which now effectively forces the Government to release most alien families into the country after 20 days.
- Congress has failed to act to close this loophole and help fix the crisis at the border.
- The decades-old Flores agreement is outdated and fails to account for the massive shift in illegal immigration to families and minors from Central America.
- The Administration is fulfilling the purpose of the Flores agreement, which is to ensure children in the Government’s custody are treated with dignity, respect, and special concern.
COMBATING CHILD SMUGGLING: The Flores loophole has been exploited by human smugglers and others who use children as pawns to bring illegal aliens into the country.
- The Flores loophole essentially gives a free pass into the interior of the United States to many aliens who arrive at the border with a minor.
- Smugglers have used this loophole as a selling point for aliens who want to cross the border and be released into the interior of the country, exploiting migrant children for profit.
- Smugglers have even fraudulently presented aliens arriving at the border as fake families to take advantage of the Flores loophole.
- This Administration’s action makes clear that human smugglers will no longer be able to profit from the Flores loophole.
RESPONDING TO THE BORDER CRISIS: The Flores loophole has been a substantial driving force behind the crisis at our southern border.
- The Flores loophole acts as a magnet, drawing more and more alien families to make the dangerous journey to our border.
- The number of family unit aliens apprehended at the southern border has skyrocketed in recent years.
- Family unit apprehensions have spiked from just 14,855 in fiscal year (FY) 2013 to 432,838 so far this FY – an increase of more than 2,800 percent.
- More than 430,000 family unit aliens have been apprehended at the southern border so far in FY 2019 – a more than 300 percent jump from all of last FY.
- There have been more family unit aliens apprehended at the southern border in the last three months – 184,000 – than all of last FY.
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