More on this from Politico:
""The government lawyers noted that three years ago, under the Obama administration, the Justice Department asked Gee to modify the consent decree and that she declined. “Several material changes in circumstances” justify her doing so now, the federal government attorneys said.
““Undeniably the limitation on the option of detaining families together and the marked increase of families illegally crossing the border are linked,” the Justice Department filing said. “This Court … has the authority and responsibility to resolve these growing concerns by immediately permitting family detention.””
"However, one key attorney representing children in the long-running case said on Wednesday that no change to the agreement was needed.
““There is nothing in the Flores settlement that prevents the secretary of Homeland Security from detaining children with their parents as long as the conditions of detention are humane and the child remains eligible for release unless the child is a flight risk, or a danger to herself or others, or the child’s parent does not wish the child to be released,” said Peter Schey of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law. “This entire episode has been a disaster for the well-being and safety of thousands of innocent children and must come to an immediate end, with remedial steps being taken to undo the extreme harm caused by the mass separation of children from their parents.””