Judge halts ‘public-health’ expulsions of children at the border

A federal judge on Wednesday blocked President Donald Trump’s policy of turning away migrant children at the border as public-health risks, ruling that the expulsion of thousands of children without due process exceeded the authority that public-healthemergency decrees confer.

The Trump administration has since March used an emergency decree from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to effectively seal the border to migrants, rapidly returning them to Mexico or Central America without allowing immigration authorities to hear their claims for asylum. Top domestic security officials have cited the potential spread of the coronavirus that could come from detaining asylumseekers in border facilities.

But Judge Emmet Sullivan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, an appointee of President Bill Clinton, said that while the emergency rule allows the authorities to prevent the “introduction” of foreigners into the United States, it did not give border authorities the ability turn away children who would normally be placed in shelters and provided an opportunity to have a claim for refuge heard. The order applies across the country.

It is unclear if the Trump administration will appeal the order. The ruling does not apply to single adults or families crossing the border, although Sullivan did cast doubt on the overall use of the rule.