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Challenge New Regulation Permitting Indefinite Detention of Immigrant Children

August 28, 2019 – Minnesota, along with 19 other states and the district of Columbia, is suing the Trump administration to end its most recent attack on immigrant children and families. The challenged regulation will permit indefinite detention of children and decrease the minimum standards of care. Ignoring the need for protection and oversight, the regulation provides for “self-licensing” of child detention facilities by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Right now, long-term centers holding migrant children ordinarily are required to abide by state licensing standards. The new rule would take away state licensing authority, and instead give that authority to the very agencies that have brutally mistreated children and adults in immigrant detention centers. Six children have died in U.S. immigration custody or shortly after release since September 2018. Prior to September 2018, no children had died in U.S. immigration custody for a decade. The new rule was published shortly after U.S. Customs, and Border Protection (CBP) announced it would not be providing flu vaccines to people in detention, despite three youth deaths having occurred because of the flu. This denial of healthcare is yet another indication of the inhumane and senseless definition of “safe and sanitary” DHS applies to detention facilities.

“The Flores settlement establishes rules for protecting migrant children by limiting their time in custody and requiring humane treatment,” said Lenore Millibergity the interim executive director of the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota (ILCM). “This move violates the letter and the spirit of those protections and ignores the basic human rights of the children and adults detained. DHS argued in court that “safe and sanitary” conditions do not necessarily include beds, soap, or a toothbrush. Now they claim the authority to self-regulate and self-license child detention facilities. That is just wrong. Children do not belong behind bars. Children deserve homes, not cages.

“We need to support vulnerable children and adults, not legalize the practice of denying them beds to sleep in or soap and a toothbrush. We need alternatives to detention and better case management. When families seeking asylum are placed into Case Management programs run by community refugee and migrant groups and have attorneys, 99 percent comply with court appointments and follow through on their asylum application process. The administration should focus on helping families, not on caging children.

“Thank you to Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison for joining in the national challenge to the anti-Flores regulation.”
The new regulation, scheduled to take effect in 60 days, would end the protection given to children under the Flores settlement, which limits detention to 20 days, orders humane care, and maintains speedy and consistent review of issues with child detention by a federal court. That federal court could reject the regulation, keeping the Flores settlement in place while the administration appeals.

Introducing Veena Iyer 


Veena Iyer, the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota’s new executive director, says three keys to understanding her are that she is a daughter of immigrants, a “really big nerd,” and full of energy and enthusiasm.

Her father immigrated from India to Minnesota in 1969. A few years later, he returned to India to marry her mother, and petitioned for her to join him in Minnesota. He was appalled that the process took so long—three months! Today, that seems like speedy processing. Veena’s husband is also a first-generation immigrant, and they met working at a community center for South Asian immigrants in Chicago. Immigration is at the center of Veena’s family story.

Veena credits her status as “a really big nerd” in part to her past as a high school debater. She says she is still really curious about everything, and loves to read widely,  ask questions, and listen and learn from others. She loves to delve deeply into issues and to mentor individuals who are new to a particular issue, whether they be middle school debaters, newer lawyers, or her own two daughters. When on vacation, she and her husband visit libraries, possibly another nerd credit.

Her enthusiasm and energy show in her past work, including pro bono work as one of ILCM’s team of volunteer attorneys. She has also volunteered at Tubman and Standpoint, in addition to serving as as a shareholder and Diversity & Inclusion Chair at the Nilan Johnson Lewis law firm.

“I am really excited about the work of ILCM,” she says. “We live in a distressing time for immigrant and refugee communities in this country and in this community. We as a country can do better. ILCM is part of doing better every day. I am thankful for this amazing staff, and really grateful for the work of John and Lenore in building and directing ILCM.”

Veena graduated from the University of Chicago with a B.A. in history, with honors, and earned her J.D. (cum laude) from Harvard Law School. She speaks conversational Spanish and Tamil and basic Russian. She began her career as an Equal Justice Works Fellow and Staff Attorney at the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago, where she represented clients, created and managed a legal clinic for low-income immigrant students and conducted English and Spanish presentations for community members and service providers.

In Minnesota, she has served as president of the Minnesota Asian Pacific American Bar Association and remains a member of its Advisory Board and Judicial Committee, as well as holding board positions at Minnesota Women Lawyers and Portico HealthNet. She has received many honors, including Minnesota Lawyer’s Diversity & Inclusion Award in 2018, and being named to the Minnesota Super Lawyers list in 2019. She is licensed to practice law in Minnesota and Illinois.

As we welcome Veena to ILCM, we look forward to opportunities for her to meet ILCM’s friends and allies in the months ahead.