A federal judge in California on Tuesday ordered United States border authorities to reunite separated immigrant families within 30 days, reported AP. However, in cases of children who are younger than five, the deadline is 14 days.
The order was issued after the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit. It involves a seven-year-old girl who was separated from her Congolese mother and a 14-year-old boy who was separated from his Brazilian mother.
District Judge Dana Sabraw issued a nationwide injunction against family separations in the future unless the parent is deemed unfit.
On Monday, a judge in Portland ruled that lawyers must be provided access to 121 immigration detainees being held at a federal prison in Oregon state. More than half the detainees are from India and Nepal.
President Donald Trump had called for the deportation of “people who invade” the country without any judicial proceedings. Later, he tweeted that people must be stopped at the US-Mexico border and “told they cannot come into the US illegally”.
In May, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a “zero tolerance” policy that allows authorities to file criminal charges against undocumented immigrants. The Trump administration faced widespread criticism for it. On June 18, investigative news website ProPublica published an audio recording of immigrant children from Central America crying inconsolably for their parents at a detention centre on the US-Mexico border.
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