Amid Government’s Efforts to Terminate Flores, Counsel File Motion to Enforce Agreement, Citing Prolonged Detention of Children and 'Culture of Cruelty'

The Flores Settlement is more critical than ever to protect immigrant children from indefinite detention in dangerous conditions

SANTA ANA, California — Less than a month after the federal government filed a motion to terminate the Flores Settlement Agreement, Flores Counsel on Tuesday evening filed a motion to enforce the Settlement, citing the government’s prolonged detention of children, which has compounded the harm of other ongoing violations, including unsafe and unsanitary conditions, lack of access to telephones, family separation and lack of familial contact, inadequate medical care, and the use of makeshift detention sites, all resulting in an escalation of cruelty and violence toward children and their families.

The motion, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, presents alarming evidence that immigrant children in federal custody are being held in prolonged detention under increasingly punitive, prison-like conditions - violating the core protections of the Flores Settlement. Many children are being imprisoned far beyond the time limits mandated by the Settlement, and the number of such cases continues to grow. In less than a year, the percentage of children held for 72 hours or longer in violation of the Settlement has more than quadrupled — from 2.4% in May 2024 to 10.3% in February 2025. Simultaneously, the number of children held for two weeks or longer in violation of the Settlement has increased sevenfold — highlighting the growing and systemic nature of these unlawful prolonged detentions.

This lengthy detention inflicts serious and lasting harm on children. They are held in unsafe, unsanitary environments, denied adequate medical care, and separated from parents and loved ones. But the physical conditions and environment are only part of the crisis. Children and their families are also subjected to egregious mistreatment and cruelty by the very officials charged with their care — treatment that reveals a profound and disturbing disregard for their basic humanity and dignity. This is vividly documented in first-hand testimony from children and their parents, whose accounts lay bare the trauma they endure in federal custody:

“They talk in English thinking we can’t understand the rude things they say, but I understand a lot of English so I can understand what they say. I heard one officer say about us, ‘they smell like shit,’ and another officer responded, ‘they are shit.’ … They treat us like we are not human beings.” - child, age 16

“They yelled at me, ‘fucking bitch, shut up!’ They treated us like animals…The staff told us we were criminals; they said ‘you can ask your God to save you, see if they exist.” - mother of three year old twins

Far from supporting the government’s claim that the Flores Settlement has outlived its purpose, the detailed accounts and documented conditions in this motion make clear that judicial oversight under the Settlement remains indispensable to safeguarding children’s freedom, health, and safety.

“The government is seeking to terminate the Flores Settlement while blatantly violating its terms,” said Sergio Perez, Executive Director of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law. “Children are being held for prolonged periods in prisons, subjected to cruelty, neglect, and conditions that are not only unlawful but deeply inhumane. These violations make one thing painfully clear: the government cannot be trusted to care for or protect the rights of immigrant children without the binding oversight of the Flores Settlement. This motion doesn’t just justify the continued need for Flores — it shows that without it, systemic abuse will only escalate.”

“The Flores Settlement Agreement sets bare minimum standards for how the government must treat children in its custody. Yet the government continues to violate the Settlement's terms and detain children in indefensible conditions,” said Becky Wolozin, Senior Attorney at the National Center for Youth Law. “There is no excuse for locking children in squalid, windowless cells for days or even weeks. This is a humanitarian crisis entirely of the government’s own making, and it demands urgent intervention by the courts. We will not stand by as cruelty toward children becomes normalized.”

“The number of children crossing our borders is the lowest in decades, but the cruelty they are experiencing in government custody is at an all-time high,”  said Leecia Welch, Deputy Litigation Director at Children’s Rights.  “Their firsthand accounts tell a shameful story of neglect and abuse that one child aptly called torture. Other children I have met in CBP custody well up with tears as they describe separation from their sibling or the indignity of using a toilet in the middle of a jail cell. Yet other children I’ve met have bravely stood up to CBP agents who have thrown away their toys or yelled at them for playing. We are heaping trauma on defenseless children who came here seeking our protection. With this motion, we return to court once again asking for nothing more than government accountability to ensure the humane treatment of children.”

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The Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law (CHRCL) is a legal non-profit committed to protecting and advancing the rights of immigrants through legal action, advocacy, and education. Through impact litigation, we challenge unlawful immigration policies to drive systemic change and establish stronger legal protections for immigrants. At the local, state, and federal levels, we advocate for fair and humane policies that uphold the rights of all immigrants. For more information, please visit https://www.centerforhumanrights.org/.

The National Center for Youth Law centers youth through research, community collaboration, impact litigation, and policy advocacy that fundamentally transforms our nation's approach to education, health, immigration, foster care, and youth justice. Attorneys and advocates with the National Center for Youth Law have direct access to children and families in immigration custody, due to the organization's role as Flores counsel. This has allowed NCYL attorneys to witness, up-close, the harm the current immigration system continues to inflict on children and their families. 

Children’s Rights is a national advocacy organization dedicated to improving the lives of children living in or impacted by America’s child welfare, juvenile legal, immigration, education, and healthcare systems. We use civil rights impact litigation, advocacy and policy expertise, and public education to hold governments accountable for keeping kids safe and healthy. Our work centers on creating lasting systemic change that will advance the rights of children for generations. For more information, please visit childrensrights.org.