Children in the Custody of U.S. Customs and Border Protection

Over the past 26 years, National Center for Youth Law attorneys who serve as Flores counsel have witnessed the preventable and immense suffering of children in government custody. 

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) facilities—which are inappropriate for any human, and especially for children—must stop detaining children entirely. There are sensible and humane alternatives that we must start working towards now.   

At a minimum, the government must immediately: 

• Ensure that all children are released within 72 hours, without exception.
• Prohibit family separations, with extremely narrow exceptions only in cases where it is critical to protect the safety of the child. 
• Comply with all terms of the 1997 Flores Settlement Agreement. 
• Comply with all terms of the 2022 CBP Settlement Agreement in Flores v. Garland and extend the requirements to all CBP facilities. 
• Fully implement the recommendations regarding CBP custodial conditions and medical systems made by the Flores Juvenile Care Monitor, Dr. Paul Wise. 

The Flores Settlement imposes a floor—not a ceiling—for the services and protections that must be provided to children in federal custody. The Flores Settlement alone is not enough to ensure that detained immigrant youth have the protections that they deserve for generations to come.

For the past several years, National Center for Youth Law has provided expert guidance to congressional offices regarding the development of the Children’s Safe Welcome Act. The bill, introduced by congressional leaders on July 13, 2022, reimagines how children are treated in government custody by prioritizing keeping families together and minimizing the amount of time that children spend in detention facilities. 

National Center for Youth Law’s policy recommendations are based on decades of experience as Flores counsel and hundreds of interviews with detained youth, deep expertise in the domestic child welfare and juvenile justice systems, and a profound commitment to advancing children’s rights.