Earlier this week, a federal judge halted the Trump administration’s practice of deporting alien minors who have entered the U.S. illegally.
Judge Emmet Sullivan, an appointee of President Clinton issued a preliminary injunction against the Department of Homeland Security’s practice on behalf of a 16-year-old alien from Guatemala who entered the country illegally in August amid one of the worst health, economic, and jobs crises in recent memory.
The Trump administration began to enforce more stringent expulsion processes earlier this year, at the recommendation of the CDC to help curd the spread of the Coronavirus. This allowed border officials to turn away unaccompanied alien minors, who would then have to wait for their case to process outside of the United States.
The Hill reports,
The administration has said in court that it has deported at least 8,800 children since the new system was implemented in March.
Sullivan said in his order on Wednesday that the plaintiffs are likely to succeed in the lawsuit because he is skeptical of the government's argument that it has the authority to deport noncitizens under existing public health laws.
DHS spokesman Chase Jennings, prudently responding to the ruling, told The Hill in an email that the decision is "dangerous," adding that it is "the propagation of one judge’s agenda thousands of miles away from the border, in the face of science and the law, with total disregard for the health of those whose lives will be affected."
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