Judge Emmet Sullivan issued the first ruling on November 18 demanded by foreign lawyers barring the expulsion of unaccompanied minors under public health laws.
The U.S. government on Wednesday passed a judge’s order banning the deportation of foreign children across the border, a policy adopted during the outbreak of the coronavirus to prevent child protection.
Judge Emmet Sullivan issued the first ruling on November 18 demanded by foreign lawyers barring the expulsion of unaccompanied minors under public health laws.
The Department of Justice filed a notice of appeal Wednesday night in the U.S. District Court of Colombia. It also asked Sullivan to lift the appeal pending an appeal, which he denied earlier.
As of March, border officials have evicted 200,000 adults and children citing the epidemic and the need to prevent the spread of the virus, even though Covid-19 is widely distributed across border communities and across the country.
Sullivan’s order only covers children crossing the border without a parent and not adults or parents or children. At least 8,800 unaccompanied minors have been evicted without the opportunity to seek asylum or speak to a lawyer. Most people were evacuated within hours or days, even though Trump’s administration had detained hundreds of children in hotels near the US-Mexico border for days or weeks at a time until another judge banned the practice.
President-elect Joe Biden has said he will set back many of President Donald Trump’s plans to enter the country where he will take office in January. Biden did not say whether he would stop the deportation.
In its file on Wednesday night, the Department of Justice cited the spread of the virus in border communities in Arizona and Texas. It warned that Sullivan’s order “would probably have an irreversible impact on public health” by reducing the capacity of hospitals and forcing the government to transport children and youth “who may be” infected “at airports.
The Associated Press reported on October 3 that senior officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention refused to issue an urgent declaration authorizing the expulsion of foreigners because it had no public health basis, but Deputy President Mike Pence ordered the organization to move forward anyway.
Proponents of her case have been working to make the actual transcript of this statement available online. They argue that the Trump administration is using the epidemic as an excuse to attack foreigners.
“There is no basis for allowing this brutal, unprecedented policy, in view of the damage these young children could face if they were sent back and the most accessible ways to keep children safe,” Lee Gelernt, an American Civil Liberties Union spokesman, said in an email.