Clarity on Flores Settlement

I was interested in Rob Leach’s letter to the editor, “Trump-bashing media continues” (Aug. 27, 2018).

In his letter, Mr. Leach trotted out the now discredited allegation that the Flores Settlement, signed by President Clinton in 1997, provided the Trump administration with the legal justification for separating children from their parents at the border. The Flores settlement, in fact, does not condone or require the separation of children from their parents.

The agreement, which came about as a result of demands from advocates of unaccompanied children trying to enter the U.S. without documentation, mandates that the children be placed in “the least restrictive setting” while awaiting an immigration hearing.

Contrary to what the Trump administration has stated, it stresses keeping children close to parents or extended family, while being held in the “least restrictive setting.” I would assume that the “least restrictive setting” would not include prison-like cages hundreds, if not thousands, of miles from their parents.

Mr. Leach makes reference to the “media telling us only what they want us to know.” To me this sounds more like the Trump administration and its media outlets (Fox, Limbaugh, etc.) than the Spokesman-Review.

An inconvenient truth, indeed.

Phillip Brown

Spokane