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HOUSTON (AP) – A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the Trump administration to stop deporting children of immigrants who cross the southern border alone, ending a policy that has resulted in thousands of rapid deportations of minors during the coronavirus pandemic.
U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan issued a preliminary injunction sought by legal groups suing on behalf of children the government sought to deport before they could seek asylum or other protections under federal law .
Trump administration deported at least 8,800 unaccompanied children since March, when he issued an emergency statement citing the coronavirus as a reason to prevent most people crossing the border from staying in the United States.
Border officers forced many to return to Mexico immediately, while holding others in detention centers or hotels, sometimes for days or weeks. Meanwhile, government-funded facilities meant to accommodate children when placed with sponsors have thousands of unused beds.
Sullivan’s order only prohibits the deportation of children who cross the border without being accompanied by a parent. The government has deported more than 147,000 people since March, including adults, parents and children traveling together.
“This policy was returning thousands of young children to danger without any hearing,” said Lee Gelernt, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union. “Like so many other policies of the Trump administration, it was gratuitously cruel and illegal.”
The Justice Department did not immediately say whether it would appeal. He appealed the order of another federal judge banning the use of hotels for the detention of children.
President-elect Joe Biden’s incoming administration did not say directly whether he will continue to try to deport immigrants under the authority of public health. Biden is expected to reverse several Trump administration policies restricting asylum as part of a broader immigration shift.
The Trump administration argued in court that it must deport children who have recently crossed the border – whether or not they have permission – to prevent infection of border officials and others detained by the. immigration. The declaration of emergency was made by Dr Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Department of Justice on October 2 cited the judgment of the “chief public health official in the country” as urging Sullivan not to stop the expulsion of the children.
The Associated Press reported on October 3 that senior CDC officials resisted release of the statement because it was not based on public health, but Vice President Mike Pence ordered Redfield to move forward anyway.
Opponents of the policy accuse the administration of using the pandemic as a pretext to restrict immigration, and say officers can safely screen minors for COVID-19 without denying protections under federal anti- trafficking and a court order that governs the treatment of children.
On September 25, US investigating magistrate G. Michael Harvey recommended that Sullivan grant an injunction prohibiting deportations of children, saying the government was claiming power “on a breathtaking scale.”
Children and parents who were deported said they believed they would be allowed to be reunited with their families in the United States, to be deported to their countries of origin.
Mother, 12 and 9, found out her children had been deported when she got a call from an official in Honduras asking her to send a relative to pick them up.
The father of a one-year-old girl alleged that officers told him and his wife to feed the Ice Girl in case their temperatures are checked before they board the plane. U.S. Immigration and Customs Police have denied the use of ice as an artificial cooling measure.
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