“The Trump administration is recommending gutting the Flores agreement so that immigrant children can be held in detention centers indefinitely or separated from their families if housing them together would place an ‘undue burden’ on the government. Further, these new regulations would allow the federal government to ‘self-license’ jails for family detention, making it easier to establish new detention centers, even as the government’s own medical experts warn that existing family detention centers pose a grave risk of harm to the children jailed therein.

“If they succeed, more immigrant children and their families will be detained, for longer periods of time, and without critical health and safety protections. Gutting the Flores agreement, which has protected children for decades, harms those most vulnerable. As Jews, we are taught kavod ha’briot – that all people deserve respect and dignity. We will not remain silent while immigrants continue to be persecuted by our government.”