For Immediate Release

LOS ANGELES — Today, a federal court issued an order to appoint a Special Master and Independent Monitor to oversee government compliance with the Flores Settlement Agreement. 

For more than a year, Flores counsel have repeatedly cited systemic and persistent government non-compliance with the Flores Settlement based on the government’s own reports and more than 100 declarations from children and families detailing the harrowing treatment, grueling conditions, and prolonged incarceration inside ICE and CBP prisons. 

The court appointment of a Special Master and Independent Monitor seeks to bring the government into compliance with the Flores Settlement Agreement requirements, after DHS has failed to do so itself. The monitors will: 

• Monitor nationwide time in CBP custody violations. The Court noted that, despite fewer children crossing the border, CBP has detained hundreds of children for weeks or months in cement prisons, often with no access to the outdoors, no privacy, and inadequate medical care. 
  • “In 20 days we have not been able to use a phone. We have family and loved ones who must think we have died. We only want to contact them to tell them we are alive and we are here in California . . . The bathroom is an open area. Any person as they enter can see you naked as you are showering. The toilet has only a very short wall. We can see each other when we use the restroom . . . we have only the thin foil blanket to keep warm. The kids are very cold . . . [the baby] had only a diaper and a thin shirt.” – V.O., detained with her 15 year-old, 11 year-old, 2 year-old, and baby.
• Oversee certain conditions in CBP custody, including temperature, sleeping conditions, and access to soap. Children report freezing temperatures and that CBP provides only a paper-thin aluminum mylar blanket to keep warm; CBP leaving bright lights on throughout the night; and cells with communal, exposed toilets, but no soap or sanitizer available in the cell.
  • “There was no soap in our cell to use after the bathroom . . . there were no showers, and they did not let us shower for the first four days, when they drove us to another building.” – K.M., detained with her husband and 6 year-old daughter for 104 days at the time of this quote.
• Track the government’s use of unlicensed hotels to imprison children and their unexplained lengths of prolonged hotel incarceration. Imprisoning children in unlicensed hotels obstructs the ability of Flores counsel to adequately monitor their conditions of confinement, leaving the children isolated from legal representation, medical care, basic needs, and any contact with the outside world. 
  • “I learned that the family was briefly held at Whipple then flown to Texas and detained for two weeks in a hotel room… [they] were not allowed outside the hotel room and were not permitted outgoing phone calls. Two ICE officials were watching them at all times, including when they slept… Both children appeared traumatized by their experience.” – L.M.S., counsel for a mother and her two minor children.
• Oversee children’s access to medical care, notice of their Flores rights, and their time in ICE custody at the South Texas Family Residential Center (“Dilley”). ICE detains families in Dilley, Texas, for months at a time, before eventually deporting many of these families or releasing them when it becomes clear the government lacks any legal basis for their continued imprisonment.  
  • “Every day I just hope they will let us go… But we know there are some moms with children who have been here for 50 days. It makes me lose hope and feel demoralized when I hear that such long detention is possible. It’s so hard, because it makes it clear that in reality the government does not apply the Flores laws that they had us sign, because if they did, we would not be here still.” – M.A.B.H., imprisoned with her 5 year-old son by CBP then transferred to Dilley.  
• Be authorized to verify and validate data that DHS is required to provide to Flores counsel. Since the Trump administration took office, monthly census data produced by CBP and ICE to Flores counsel has been fraught with discrepancies, including data that erroneously omitted some class members from their reporting.
  • “On April 23rd, 2026, CoreCivic staff said we needed to get our things ready because we were going to be deported… it felt like they just drove us in circles for hours… Eventually, they put my children and I on another bus around 6 am and drove for a while before we came back to Dilley. We were on the bus for twelve hours – until about noon the next day. We never made it to an airport – we just ended up right back where we started. I asked ICE why this happened, but they never told me why. When they brought us back to Dilley, they told us we had to do everything all over again as if we were brand new to the facility. … I think they did all of this so that it didn’t look like my four kids had been here past the 20 days in violation of Flores.” – L.R.V., detained with her children at Dilley for 63 days.

The Independent Monitor will oversee compliance with the Flores Settlement’s requirement that children be expeditiously released or transferred out of unsafe DHS prisons and ensure that while children are detained, they are provided with the basic care and necessities required by the Flores Settlement agreement.

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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 centerforhumanrights.org.

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