WASHINGTON – A U.S. federal judge on Monday rejected the Trumpadministration’s request to allow long-term detention of illegal immigrantchildren, a legal setback for President Donald Trump’s push to detainimmigrant families taken into custody at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Los Angeles U.S. District Court Judge Dolly Gee dismissed as “dubious” and“unconvincing” the U.S. Justice Department’s proposal to modify a 1997settlement known as the Flores Agreement, which says that children cannotbe held in detention for long periods.

The government made its request in June after public outcry over its policyof separating children from parents who entered the United Statesillegally. A judge in a different case in San Diego ordered the governmentlast month to reunite the families it had separated.

The government asserted in its Flores filing that the San Diego rulingwould necessitate longer-term detention of children, since that would bethe only way to both reunite them with their parents and keep the parentsincarcerated during their immigration proceedings.

Gee rejected that argument.

“Defendants advance a tortured interpretation of the Flores Agreement in anattempt to show that the … injunction permits them to suspend the Floresrelease and licensure provisions,” she wrote.

Previous administrations often released families apprehended at the borderto pursue their immigration claims while living freely in the UnitedStates. But Trump has vowed to end what he calls “catch-and-release.” -Agencies