U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan ordered the federal government to stop enforcing a Trump-era rule that prevented immigrants from staying in the country if they’re determined to pose a risk of spreading the coronavirus, the Associated Press reports.
Judge Sullivan ruled that the Biden Administration has two weeks to stop expelling immigrants and families at the southern border based on the policy, which could theoretically apply to any living person entering the country.
The judge’s order was made because Sullivan ruled the argument against the policy, made by the American Civil Liberties Union and other counsel on behalf of migrant families, would likely be overturned in a pending case.
The Trump Administration created the rule in the early months of the coronavirus pandemic, ostensibly to prevent the spread of the virus by migrants coming into the American prison system. Immigrants were returned over the Mexican border, denied their right by law to pursue an asylum claim in the United States.