I think Biden was handed a bad situation, because the normal means of immigration, sorry as it was, was neglected and purposely impeded, and covid compounded things. If I recall correctly Obama tried to get around the Flores agreement also, he was deporting as many folks as he could, but when it came down to it, Obama admin backed down and followed the law.
International law states the entry is not illegal if migrants present themselves and ask for asylum as soon as possible. There was also a program of using ankle monitors that had a 95-99% show rate for trial regardless of whether or not they were going to be deported that was discontinued in 2018. I don't recall the details from the time, but the Trump admin changed the law or how it was prosecuted so that people had to be jailed instead of released to wait for their court date. Then they had the stay in Mexico agreement. Having kids that don't speak English represent themselves in court. I think some judges either quit or threatened to quit over that.
Trump and Stephen Miller were also trying to make his friends rich and intentionally discourage crossings, so they had all those private contractors getting paid to hold people in bad conditions that were against international law. They have government documents and memos showing that when they had decisions to make, they always chose what would cause the most harm to the migrants. We didn't have the facilities to hold all those people, which is why they had camps and black sites. They were never going to give those kids back, which is why they didn't keep track of their parents. They were going to keep them in the system until they were 18, paying his friends to house them, and then deport them when they turned 18. It was just another money maker off of poor folks. No telling how many disappeared, sexually abused, killed or adopted out.
I think the Biden admin is going to come up with a settlement amount, because we are going to pay out the azz for it otherwise, no matter who the president is at the time. The only difference is that Biden isn't trying to disappear info, so they are going to cooperate with the courts and provide info in a timely manner.
I don't think Biden wants them here tho. When all this was happening before, I remember reminding folks that not all the folks coming in were Mexican, that immigration and DACA affected black immigrants also. I was told they needed to hold their own nuts, but Biden is in charge now so SUDDENLY the plight of Haitians is an issue.
Regardless, their treatment was against international and asylum laws. They were denied medical treatment, basic hygiene, decent food, and everything else. Even if they had supplies they weren't handing them out. There was a case where they had women and children caged near the border, and they had one mother strip an infant down so it was basically naked in the hot sun. There are storied of rape, child abuse and neglect. As I've said elsewhere, those kids didn't experience a 1/10 of what our black ancestors experienced, and doctors have said some of those kids are never going to be right again. They are going to get paid, but this isn't CONGRESS passing a law saying so. These folks have gone to court and are winning their cases.
Flores agreement explained:
The settlement Trump blames for causing the problem could be an obstacle to using an executive order to solve it.
www.vox.com