The Trump administration is to reconsider around 1,000 asylum claims from undocumented immigrant families separated at the border in a deal to end to lawsuits over the now rescinded zero-tolerance policy. Late on Wednesday, court documents revealed that the settlement was seen as a victory for immigrant rights groups who had challenged the controversial policy intended to deter illegal immigration.
If San Diego-based US District Judge, Dana Sabraw, approves the settlement, immigrant families will be able to apply for asylum a second time even if the US authorities had rejected their claims before. Over 1,000 people will be able to put in new applications for asylum, according to the rights group, Muslim Advocates, which was part of the campaign to sue the Trump administration.
Trump’s policy, which resulted in the separation of immigrant families and thousands of children held in detention, brought widespread condemnation until the policy was rescinded in June. A few days later, a federal judge ordered the reunion of the families, although the process is still incomplete.
The American Civil Liberties Union claims the agreement also opens the possibility that at least some of the immigrant parents already deported, numbered in the hundreds, could be brought back to the US. Such claims will have to be individually judged, but immigration lawyers say the parents may have a good case due to coercion to drop their bids for asylum.