Court authorizes U.S. border officials to resume deportation of unaccompanied children without hearing

A three-member panel of circuit judges on Friday authorized U.S. border officials to use a Trump-era emergency policy to expel quickly unaccompanied migrant children from American soil without a hearing or asylum interview.

Justices Gregory Katsas, Neomi Rao and Justin Walker of the US Circuit Court in Washington, DC suspended a lower court order that had prevented the government from deporting children apprehended along US borders without their parents or legal guardians . The three judges were appointed by former President Trump.

While U.S. border officials may resume deporting unaccompanied children, it’s unclear whether the Biden administration will choose to do so. Representatives of the Department of Homeland Security and its sub-agency, Customs and Border Protection, did not immediately respond to requests for clarification of their plans. The Justice Department declined to comment on Friday’s order.

In March 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) allowed U.S. immigration officials to deport all unauthorized border crossers, regardless of age or intention to seek asylum, saying the policy generalization was needed to avoid COVID-19 outbreaks among migrants. detention facilities and border communities.

Three former Trump administration officials told CBS News that former CDC director Robert Redfield signed the policy under pressure from the White House and over objections from experts in his agency who believed the broad restriction lacked sufficient public health justification.

About 13,000 unaccompanied migrant children were deported from U.S. soil before U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan ordered the Trump administration in November 2020 to stop the practice. The Trump administration later conceded in court that he mistakenly deported at least 70 unaccompanied minors in violation of Sullivan’s order.

In his November order, Sullivan said the policy of deporting unaccompanied minors violated several legal safeguards established by Congress to protect them from violence, persecution and trafficking. Under US law, these children are protected from expedited deportations and are expected to be quickly transferred out of border patrol schools and to shelters overseen by the US Office of Refugee Resettlement.

Although he has vowed to lift many of the restrictions Mr. Trump has placed on asylum seekers along the US-Mexico border, President Biden has not said whether his administration will limit or repeal the CDC order. which authorizes evictions.

Lee Gelernt, an attorney for the United States Civil Liberties Union who filed the complaint on behalf of the unaccompanied children, called Friday’s court order a “temporary setback.”

“We will continue to advocate on behalf of these vulnerable unaccompanied children, who are in need of protection and who have the legal right to seek asylum,” Gelernt told CBS News. “But we hope the Biden administration does not necessitate an ongoing litigation by overturning this illegal policy created by the Trump administration.”

Wendy Young, president of Kids in Need of Defense, a nonprofit organization that provides legal assistance to migrant minors, also called on the Biden administration to “waste no time in officially abandoning this cruel and senseless practice” .