A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to halt a policy in which border agents would immediately expel unaccompanied children who cross the southern border, a rule that has resulted in thousands of children being sent to Mexico alone, the Associated Press reports.
The US government has expelled approximately 8,800 unaccompanied children since March, following an emergency declaration that, it claims, allows such a policy because of the coronavirus pandemic.
U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan ruled that the policy violated the migrants’ right to request asylum and seek other protections under US law. Sullivan issued an immediate injunction to stop the practice.
Sullivan’s order impacts only unaccompanied children, not the more than 150,000 adults and families who come to the US to seek asylum.
The US government has hundreds of empty beds in holding facilities designed to house children until they are placed with family members or foster families in the United States. Instead of using those facilities, the Trump administration has ordered the rapid deportation of the children, who end up in camps set up on the Mexican side of the border.