LOS ANGELES - Immigrant advocates have filed legal documents to try to force the administration of President Donald Trump to quickly release immigrant children from a Florida detention centre.

The advocates accuse the administration of violating a decades-old settlement that they say requires that children be promptly released to relatives or other sponsors or sent to child care facilities.

That settlement is overseen by U.S. Judge Dolly Gee in Los Angeles.

In a court filing Friday, the Center for Human Rights & constitutional Law and other advocacy groups asked Gee for permission to seek a court order requiring the release of children within 14 days.

A call seeking comment from the U.S. Department of Justice was not immediately returned.

Advocates say hundreds of children are held in prison-like conditions in Homestead, Florida.