298
Opinion of the Court
§ 242.24(c). The Service may briefly hold the minor in an "INS detention facility having separate accommodations for juveniles," § 242.24(d), but under the terms of the consent decree resolving respondents' conditions-of-detention claims, the INS must within 72 hours of arrest place alien juveniles in a facility that meets or exceeds the standards established by the Alien Minors Care Program of the Community Relations Service (CRS), Department of Justice, 52 Fed. Reg. 15569 (1987). See Memorandum of Understanding Re Compromise of Class Action: Conditions of Detention, Flores v. Meese, No. 85-4544-RJK (Px) (CD Cal., Nov. 30, 1987) (incorporating the CRS notice and program description), reprinted in App. to Pet. for Cert. 148a-205a (hereinafter Juvenile Care Agreement).
Juveniles placed in these facilities are deemed to be in INS detention "because of issues of payment and authorization of medical care." 53 Fed. Reg., at 17449. "Legal custody" rather than "detention" more accurately describes the reality of the arrangement, however, since these are not correctional institutions but facilities that meet "state licensing requirements for the provision of shelter care, foster care, group care, and related services to dependent children," Juvenile Care Agreement 176a, and are operated "in an open type of setting without a need for extraordinary security measures," id., at 173a. The facilities must provide, in accordance with "applicable state child welfare statutes and generally accepted child welfare standards, practices, principles and procedures," id., at 157a, an extensive list of services, including physical care and maintenance, individual and group counseling, education, recreation and leisure-time activities, family reunification services, and access to religious services, visitors, and legal assistance, id., at 159a, 178a-185a.
Although the regulation replaced the Western Region release policy that had been the focus of respondents' constitutional claims, respondents decided to maintain the litigation as a challenge to the new rule. Just a week after the regula-
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