Twenty U.S. States Challenge Trump Administration’s Proposal to End Limits to Minor Detention

Twenty states announced their plans to file a lawsuit against the Trump Administration in response to its plans to amend the rule that limits the amount of time a migrant child may be held in detention centers to 20 days. Amending this rule would allow the Federal Government to detain asylum-seeking families indefinitely while their cases are reviewed. The lawsuit, filed on August 26, 2019, argues that such an amendment would violate due process under the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and would lead to the unnecessary expansion of for-profit detention programs across the United States.