Washington (AFP)

The government of Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that he intended to remove the strict limits on the time spent in detention centers by migrant children, a new initiative controversial in its policy of firmness against illegal immigration.

Human rights groups and the democratic opposition immediately denounced this initiative, promising to fight the new rule, which still needs to be reviewed by a federal judge.

The US Department of Homeland Security wants to end a 1997 court ruling, called "Flores," requiring federal authorities not to detain children more than 20 days.

A new rule, which must be implemented within 60 days, will no longer limit the time spent by children or their families in detention centers.

For Donald Trump's government, it is a question of discouraging the number of migrants who arrive in record numbers on the border with Mexico, with the hope of being released soon after their arrest if they are with children, and so be able to stay in the United States.

"To protect these children from abuse and stop the illegal flow of migrants," we must put an end to these legal loopholes, "said Donald Trump, according to a White House statement. "This is an urgent humanitarian need."

Faced with the arrival of tens of thousands of migrants each month at the US border, Donald Trump's Republican government separated children from their parents, held in detention, in the name of complying with the "Flores" norm.

The reform announced Wednesday aims to "ensure that foreign families can be together during migration formalities," says the White House. "This new rule will ensure that foreign children are safe and take good care of them in detention."

"This year we saw an unprecedented flow of families, mostly from Central America, arriving at our southwestern border," Kevin McAleenan, Acting Minister of Homeland Security, told a news conference.

Nearly 475,000 migrants arrived with family were arrested between October 2018 and July, three times more than the previous record, he said.

The "Flores" rule has "usually forced the authorities to release families in the country after 20 days, encouraging illegal entry," he said, while migration formalities can take months or even years.

- "Trauma" -

Human rights organizations immediately announced that they would fight the repeal of the "Flores" standard.

"This is a new cruel attack against children" migrants, denounced a leader of the ACLU freedom advocacy organization, Madhuri Grewal.

"The government should not imprison children, and should even less seek to put more children in prison, for longer," she added.

Democratic parliamentarians have called on the courts to "stop this illegal action immediately".

"There is no justification for indefinite detention of children and no excuse for the trauma this policy will inflict on families," said Democratic Party leader Tom Perez.

Donald Trump had provoked strong indignation, including among the Republican ranks, in 2018 with the implementation of his policy of separation of families.

The Republican has since returned to this policy. But more than 900 migrant children have been separated from their families on the border between the United States and Mexico for a year, had said in late July the powerful American civil rights group ACLU.

Under the governments of Democrat Barack Obama (2009-2017) and Republican George W. Bush (2001-2009) children had also been separated from adults with whom they had entered the United States but in a more exceptional way, especially when the relationship could not be established.

Barack Obama has expelled much more than his predecessors, with at least 2.4 million people being escorted back to the border or sent back to their country.

© 2019 AFP