United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that illegal alien parents crossing the border with children are not protected under the 1997 Flores-agreement and can be held in detention until they have an immigration hearing. Children crossing with their parents, however, must be processed quickly and released to a relative or sponsor.
“The settlement does not explicitly provide any rights to adults,” Judge Andrew D. Hurwitz said in the unanimous opinion for the court.
Last year U.S. District Judge Dolly M. Gee ruled that children caught crossing the border illegally with or without parents must be processed quickly and released. This expanded the 1997 Flores-agreement which had previously only been applied to children who crossed illegally without parents.
Judge Gee also said that since the children must be released that the parents should also be released, which sparked an increase in family units crossing the border to take advantage of this lax enforcement policy.
This year 44,524 family unites have already been apprehended compared to the the 39,838 total for last year.
Read more on this story at The Washington Times.
