<p class="title">President Donald Trump's administration has announced that it would remove tough legal limits on how long migrant children can be detained as part of its broader crackdown on undocumented immigrants.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The Department of Homeland Security said it was terminating the 1997 Flores Settlement Agreement, a binding legal ruling that said the government could not hold migrant children in detention for more than 20 days.</p>.<p class="bodytext">A new policy, to be implemented in 60 days, will not limit how long children or their families can be detained.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The move is aimed at deterring migrant expectations that they will be released after being arrested by the US border authorities and able to disappear into the US population.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"To protect these children from abuse, and stop this illegal flow, we must close these loopholes. This is an urgent humanitarian necessity," Trump said in a statement.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Kevin McAleenan, the acting DHS secretary, cited the challenge of "an unprecedented flow of family units" crossing the southern US border this year, most of them from Central America.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The Flores Settlement "has generally forced the government to release families into the country after just 20 days, incentivizing illegal entry," he said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Human smugglers advertise, and intending migrants know well, that even if they cross the border illegally, arriving at our border with a child has meant that they will be released into the United States to wait for court proceedings that could take five years or more."</p>.<p class="bodytext">Trump told reporters at the White House he was also considering ending birthright citizenship, repeating a previous administration pledge to end the policy of automatically designating babies born in the United States as American nationals.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"We're looking at that very seriously, birthright citizenship. Where you have a baby on our land -- you walk over the border, have a baby. Congratulations, the baby is now a US citizen," Trump said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">He dismissed the process -- guaranteed under the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution -- as "frankly ridiculous." The Flores rule was the result of a lawsuit citing chronic abuse of migrants in detention.</p>.<p class="bodytext">It required they receive adequate, humane care and that migrant children be released within 20 days and placed in the custody of their parents or relatives.</p>
<p class="title">President Donald Trump's administration has announced that it would remove tough legal limits on how long migrant children can be detained as part of its broader crackdown on undocumented immigrants.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The Department of Homeland Security said it was terminating the 1997 Flores Settlement Agreement, a binding legal ruling that said the government could not hold migrant children in detention for more than 20 days.</p>.<p class="bodytext">A new policy, to be implemented in 60 days, will not limit how long children or their families can be detained.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The move is aimed at deterring migrant expectations that they will be released after being arrested by the US border authorities and able to disappear into the US population.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"To protect these children from abuse, and stop this illegal flow, we must close these loopholes. This is an urgent humanitarian necessity," Trump said in a statement.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Kevin McAleenan, the acting DHS secretary, cited the challenge of "an unprecedented flow of family units" crossing the southern US border this year, most of them from Central America.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The Flores Settlement "has generally forced the government to release families into the country after just 20 days, incentivizing illegal entry," he said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Human smugglers advertise, and intending migrants know well, that even if they cross the border illegally, arriving at our border with a child has meant that they will be released into the United States to wait for court proceedings that could take five years or more."</p>.<p class="bodytext">Trump told reporters at the White House he was also considering ending birthright citizenship, repeating a previous administration pledge to end the policy of automatically designating babies born in the United States as American nationals.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"We're looking at that very seriously, birthright citizenship. Where you have a baby on our land -- you walk over the border, have a baby. Congratulations, the baby is now a US citizen," Trump said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">He dismissed the process -- guaranteed under the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution -- as "frankly ridiculous." The Flores rule was the result of a lawsuit citing chronic abuse of migrants in detention.</p>.<p class="bodytext">It required they receive adequate, humane care and that migrant children be released within 20 days and placed in the custody of their parents or relatives.</p>