A federal judge has banned the U.S. government from quickly deporting migrant families who were initially separated at the border as part of the Trump administration’s “zero-tolerance” policy, and then reunited later.
Judge Dana Sabraw of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California in San Diego ruled in favor of the American Civil Liberties Union Monday by saying reunited families could not be removed from the country because it was in violation of the kids’ legal rights to request asylum, which takes time to assess.
“A one-week stay is a reasonable and appropriate remedy to ensure that the unimaginable trauma these families have suffered does not turn even worse because parents made an uninformed decision about the fate of their child,” the ACLU wrote in its filing, according to multiple reports.
Currently, the Department of Health and Human Services is working to reunite about 2,500 children from ages five to 17 who were taken away from the adult they traveled with to the border so the adult could be prosecuted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
This group must be reunited with verified parents by July 26, though HHS said due to time constraints, it will not be able to administer DNA tests on adults and kids as it had for the 57 young children it turned over to parents last week.
Any person apprehended between ports of entry can apply for asylum despite having entered the U.S. illegally.
