WASHINGTON, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Homeland Security Department on Wednesday unveiled new regulations to allow the government to detain migrant families longer than before, and the move is widely expected to face court challenges and has sparked broad concerns.
The new rules are meant to reduce the number of families trying to enter the United States, said U.S. Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan, when announcing the policy change at a press conference.
The policy change will allow President Donald Trump's administration to detain asylum-seeking families during their immigration proceedings, with no time limit.
Yet, it may defy a federal court ruling known as the Flores Settlement Agreement (FSA) that bars the government from keeping children with their parents in immigration detention centers for more than than 20 days.
McAleenan said that the new rules will mend a loophole in the Flores agreement, which has been in effect in the country since 1997.
"By closing this key loophole in Flores, the new rule will restore integrity to our immigration system and eliminate the major pull factor fueling the crisis," McAleenan said.
The FSA was mostly applied to children who entered the United States alone. In 2015, U.S. District Court Judge Dolly Gee ruled that it was applicable to children who crossed the border with families after the previous administration of President Barack Obama built detention centers for detained migrant families and kept them there before their cases were completed.
The "loophole" encourages migrants to bring children with them when crossing the border so that they are more likely to be freed soon in the United States after a detention and less likely to be deported, Homeland Security officials said.
The new policy change will take effect in 60 days after it is published in the Federal Register on Friday. It is widely seen as Trump's latest effort to curb immigration, especially at the U.S. border with Mexico.
The move immediately sparked concerns and outrage amid reports of dire conditions in U.S. detention centers, and worries that prolonged detention would bring more harm to immigrant children, among others.
The Mexican government said that it would monitor conditions at U.S. detention facilities, offer consular services to Mexican families detained, and closely follow any possible court challenges.
The Amnesty International said that children who have already endured violence and persecution would be harmed by this U.S. new immigration policy.
In the United States, immigrant advocates and Democrats decried the new regulations for allowing prolonged detention of migrant families.
Some lawyers said that if the regulations don't match the FSA settlement, they would be in material breach or contempt of court.
The American Civil Liberties Union announced that it would take swift legal action to block the new regulations.
The U.S. government now reportedly runs three family detention centers which can hold a total of some 3,000 people.
McAleenan believed that there is no need for more detention space due to governmental efforts to restrict the inflow of migrants, but immigrant advocates said the new rules would put more immigrants into detained court proceedings, slowing the process and keeping children there longer.
