On Tuesday, a federal judge ruled that immigrant parents and children caught crossing over the US border from Mexico can no longer be separated by US immigration agents, and ruled that families split up as they were previously taken into custody must be reunited.
US District Court Judge, Dana Sabraw, granted a preliminary injunction to the American Civil Liberties Union over their lawsuit on the family separations. Over 2,300 immigrant minors were separated from their parents when the Trump administration commenced a policy of zero-tolerance early last month, with the intention of prosecuting all immigrant adults who chose to illegally cross the border into the US, including those with children. The American Civil Liberties Union launched the case on behalf of a mother separated from her then six-year-old daughter, last November, after coming to the US to claim asylum and flee alleged religious persecution in her home nation of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
They were reunited back in March, but the American Civil Liberties Union elected to continue pursuing class action claims for other immigrants in the same situation. President Donald Trump issued an executive order ending the family separations last week but 2,000 minors are still separated from their parents.
The US government had urged Sabraw not to make such a ruling, claiming that the goals of the lawsuit had been largely addressed by the President’s executive action.