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The State attorney general and governor recently ripped the White House over immigration proposals.
By Michael V. Cusenza
New York elected officials recently ramped up rhetoric ripping President Donald Trump and his administration regarding its stances on immigration.
State Attorney General Barbara Underwood, part of a coalition of 18 attorneys general, has submitted a comment letter to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Department of Health & Human Services expressing significant concerns with their proposed regulations that would roll back protections for children held in immigrant detention facilities. Those protections are the result of a settlement in prior litigation—the Flores Settlement Agreement—which has afforded all immigrant children a right to be released from detention, set standards for their conditions of confinement, and provided meaningful oversight and monitoring of their care while in custody. The Trump administration is seeking to replace the protections in the settlement agreement with the new, less protective regulations, the AG noted.
“We can, and must, do better than detaining children for prolonged periods of time,” Underwood wrote in the 33-page missive.
In the comment letter, the attorneys general:
• Describe how the proposed rule contradicts protections guaranteed by the Flores Settlement Agreement, including the presumption that all children are eligible for release into the community;
• Address constitutional concerns with the indefinite detention of children;
• Call attention to the evidence showing that detention is not a deterrent to immigration;
• Highlight how the proposed rule undermines state licensing of children’s residential placements, which is a fundamental police power traditionally belonging to the States; and
• Discuss the evidence of lasting harm to children from detention.
“We won’t stand by as the Trump administration continues to undermine children’s most fundamental rights,” Underwood later commented.
The letter comes five months after Underwood filed a multistate lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s unconstitutional family separation policy.
And Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Friday blasted fellow Queens native Trump for signing a 90-day presidential proclamation blocking anyone who illegally crosses the U.S.-Mexico border from achieving asylum.
“The United States has a long and proud history of offering protection to aliens who are fleeing persecution and torture and who qualify under the standards articulated in our immigration laws, including through our asylum system and the Refugee Admissions Program. But our system is being overwhelmed by migration through our southern border,” the proclamation states. “Crossing the border to avoid detection and then, if apprehended, claiming a fear of persecution is in too many instances an avenue to near-automatic release into the interior of the United States. Once released, such aliens are very difficult to remove. An additional influx of large groups of aliens arriving at once through the southern border would add tremendous strain to an already taxed system, especially if they avoid orderly processing by unlawfully crossing the southern border.”
Cuomo called the proclamation “a shameful assault on our American values and a continuation of his fear-mongering politics.
“Fueling the flames of hate and division, this President is trying to shut the door on vulnerable men, women and children who are coming to this country seeking safety and security,” the governor added.
