Federal judge briefly stops U.S. from expelling migrant teen

HOUSTON — A federal judge has temporarily stopped President Donald Trump’s administration from expelling a teenager to Honduras under a policy enacted during the coronavirus pandemic that didn’t give the teen a chance under federal law to stay in the United States.

According to the American Civil Liberties Union and other legal groups, the 16-yearold had been scheduled to be expelled Wednesday, six days after he entered the U.S. to reunite with his father. The ACLU says the boy fled because gang members threatened him after he saw one of them kill someone in his neighborhood.

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan in Washington issued an order late Tuesday preventing the government from expelling the teenager through the end of the day

Wednesday as litigation is pending. The teen was not identified by name in court papers.

Another federal judge also in Washington, Carl Nichols, proposed Wednesday that the boy be allowed to remain the country for two weeks to allow time for formal arguments at a court hearing. Details were to be worked out.

The ACLU also sued on behalf of a 13-yearold girl who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in April, asking a judge to allow her back into the U.S. She had hoped to reunite with her mother, a former police officer targeted by Salvadoran gangs who now lives lawfully in the country. According to the ACLU, agents detained the teenager for a week in a Border Patrol processing center and a hotel, then expelled her to El Salvador.

The Border Patrol did not respond to a request for comment late Tuesday.