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A5 THE ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, AUGUST 22, 2019 Trump: US has Trump administration moves to end limits on child detention ‘very strong’ gun background checks By COLLEEN LONG and AMY TAXIN Associated Press By JILL COLVIN Associated Press WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is moving to end a long-stand- ing federal agreement that limits how long immigrant children can be kept in deten- tion. A court fi ght will almost certainly follow over the government’s desire to hold migrant families until their cases are decided. The current court agree- ment now requires the gov- ernment to keep children in the least restrictive set- ting and to release them as quickly as possible, generally after 20 days in detention. Homeland Security offi - cials say they are adopting their own regulations that refl ect the court’s “Flores agreement,” which has been in effect since 1997, and there is no longer a need for court involvement, which was only meant to be tempo- rary. But the new rules would allow the government to hold families in detention much longer than 20 days. It is the latest effort by the administration to tighten immigration, President Don- ald Trump’s signature issue, and is aimed at restricting the movement of asylum seekers in the country and deterring more migrants from crossing the border. The news imme- diately generated fresh out- rage, following reports of dire conditions in detention facilities, and it is question- able whether courts will let the administration move for- ward with the policy. Immigrant advocates decried the move and said prolonged detention would traumatize immigrant children. “The government should not be jailing kids, and cer- tainly shouldn’t be seeking to put more kids in jail for lon- AP Photo/Eric Gay Immigrants play soccer at the U.S. government’s newest holding center for migrant children in Carrizo Springs, Texas. ger,” said Madhuri Grewal, policy counsel for the Ameri- can Civil Liberties Union. Peter Schey, a lawyer for the immigrant children in the Flores case and president of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, said if the regulations don’t match the settlement in that case, “they would be in immediate material breach, if not con- tempt of court.” “I think all these things are now part of the 2020 campaign,” Schey said. Acting Homeland Secu- rity Secretary Kevin McAleenan said Wednesday the regulations create higher standards to govern family detention facilities. The facil- ities will be regularly audited, and the audits made public. The regulations are expected to be formally pub- lished Friday and go into effect in 60 days absent legal challenges. They follow moves last week to broaden the defi ni- tion of a “public charge” to include immigrants on pub- lic assistance, potentially denying green cards to more immigrants. There was also a recent effort to effectively end asylum altogether at the southern border. The Flores agreement is a constant talking point by the president and his administra- tion, which claims it is a loop- hole that encourages migrants to make a dangerous and potentially deadly journey to the U.S. The district judge overseeing the agreement has already refused govern- ment requests to increase the amount of time children can be detained, and advo- cates moved to block the reg- ulations when the proposed rule was fi rst announced last September. There has been a dras- tic increase in the number of families crossing the bor- der — about 475,000 so far this budget year, nearly three times the previous full-year record for families. Most are released into the U.S. while their asylum requests wind through the courts — a prac- tice Trump has derided as “catch-and-release.” The Flores agreement has been into effect since 1997 but mostly applied to chil- dren who came to the coun- try alone. In 2015, U.S. Dis- trict Court Judge Dolly Ghee ruled the requirements were applicable to children who crossed the border with fam- ilies, after the Obama admin- istration built family deten- tion centers and started detaining families until their cases were completed. Part of the issue was that children could not be kept in facilities that weren’t licensed, and no states license family detention centers. Homeland Security offi cials say by adopting the stan- dards for education, healthy food and cleanliness used by U.S. Immigration and Cus- toms Enforcement, which detains adult immigrants, they are satisfying require- ments in lieu of state licens- ing requirements. Homeland Security did not say how long it expects families to be kept, but McAleenan said under the previous administration it was about 50 days. McAleenan said there was “no intent to hold families for a long period of time. The intent is for a fair and expedi- tious proceeding.” WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is insisting that the U.S. already has “very, very strong back- ground checks” for gun pur- chases. It’s the latest sign that he is backing away from throwing his political sup- port behind changes to the system that are opposed by the powerful gun lobby. Speaking to reporters in the Oval Offi ce, Trump also noted “a lot of the peo- ple that put me where I am are strong believers in the Second Amendment,” and he suggested he worries about blurring the contrast between Republicans and Democrats on the issue. “We have to be very care- ful about that,” he said. A gradual rhetorical soft- ening by Trump has taken place in the more than two weeks since gunmen opened fi re in El Paso, Texas, then in Dayton, Ohio, leaving more than 30 people dead. Trump said in the tragedies’ wake that he was eager to implement “very meaning- ful background checks” and told reporters there was “tre- mendous support” for action. “We don’t want people that are mentally ill, peo- ple that are sick — we don’t want them having guns,” he said. But in the days since, Trump has changed his tone. He said that, while the cur- rent system has “sort of missing areas and areas that don’t complete the whole circle,” it is overall “very, very strong” — even though federal law only requires background checks for guns sold through licensed fi re- arm dealers. And he said he worried about the potential risk of a “slippery slope,” where “all of a sudden everything gets taken away.” Just 11 days earlier Trump dismissed that very same “slippery slope” thinking, which he attributed to the National Rifl e Asso- ciation. “I don’t agree with that,” he said then. The waffl ing drew anger from Democrats, includ- ing Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who said if Trump is serious about action he should call on Sen- ate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to put a House- passed background checks bill up for vote. “These retreats are heart- breaking, particularly for the families of the victims of gun violence,” Schumer tweeted. Republicans have refused to take up several Demo- cratic-backed gun control bills that passed the House, and historically they have opposed many efforts to strengthen the nation’s gun laws. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who spoke with Trump last week, said the president expressed sup- port then for working across the aisle “to come up with a background checks bill that can pass the Senate and save lives.” While he said he would wait to hear from Trump again directly, he compared the episode to Trump’s fl ip-fl op on back- ground checks following the Parkland, Florida, shooting after intervention from the NRA. “It’s time for Republi- cans and President Trump to decide whose side they’re on,” Murphy said in a state- ment. “Are they going to stand with the 90% of Amer- icans who want universal background checks, or are they going to once again kowtow to the desires of the gun lobby?” ® Google average rating 4.8 READ THE REVIEWS Don’t just take our word for it. Based on over 6,750 projects that have been done in your area, we have earned rave reviews from your neighbors and recognition from key industry organizations. 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