Jennifer L. Henn  |  November 18, 2020

Category: Covid-19

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Border Patrol has been told to stop deporting refugee children.

Federal Judge Emmet Sullivan ordered the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and border control authorities on Wednesday to stop expelling unaccompanied immigrant and refugee children – something the Trump administration said was necessary to stem the spread of COVID-19.

The order came in response to a request made as part of a class action lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of a Guatemalan teenager said to be fleeing persecution in his homeland and others.

Lawyers for the refugee children say they have been denied the opportunity to seek asylum through legal proceedings and have either been expelled from the country or detained indefinitely in hotel rooms rather than transferred to the Office for Refugee Resettlement, as is called for by law.

According to reporting by CBS News and others, White House officials pressured the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to issue orders in March calling for the expulsions in the name of safeguarding public health. Rapid deportations or hotel detainment would prevent possible coronavirus outbreaks inside immigrant holding centers and in towns located along the border, the Trump administration said.

By the time the ACLU filed the class action lawsuit to try to stop more refugee children being expelled, nearly 9,000 unaccompanied kids were reportedly deported or turned away at the southern border.

Judge Sullivan’s order Wednesday only applies to the unaccompanied refugee children, not children who cross the border with adult family members. An estimated 190,000 adults and accompanied children have been summarily deported at the Mexican border since March.

“This policy was sending thousands of young children back to danger without any hearing,” a lawyer for the ACLU was quoted in an Associated Press report as saying. “Like so many other Trump administration policies, it was gratuitously cruel and unlawful.”

It is unclear whether the Department of Homeland Security will appeal Judge Sullivan’s order. In its response to the class action lawsuit, it argued to the court that the nation’s top public health official – CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield – had ordered the refugee children expelled as an emergency measure to prevent the pandemic from spreading.

“There is no reason to allow plaintiff to hamper the CDC director’s lawful and demonstrably effective response to the pandemic, and second-guessing the director’s judgment at this juncture potentially could lead to devastating public health consequences,” homeland security’s lawyers wrote to the court.

Border Patrol has been told to stop deporting refugee children.Typically, unaccompanied refugee children who present themselves at the southern border are, by law, promptly transferred to the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement. The agency houses the children while tracking down American sponsors or family members who can take them in.

Opponents to the Trump administration’s handling of these refugee children say they can be safely screened for COVID-19 infection, quarantined and then released once medically cleared according to the standard procedure.

The refugee children class action lawsuit was filed in August in U.S. District Court in Washington D.C., where it will continue being considered.

The lead plaintiff in the case is the father of a 16-year-old boy from Guatemala taken into custody when he crossed the border. The teen has allegedly been detained in a hotel room ever since, rather than being released to his father, who is in the U.S., the class action claims.

Do you know any refugee children who have been turned away at the Mexican border or who were deported without having a chance to purse legal proceedings? Tell us about it in the comment section below.

The refugee children are represented by Stephen B. King, Cody Wofsy, Morgan Russell, Adreinne Harrold, Andre Segura, Kathryn Huddleston, Rochelle Garza, Brantley S. Drake, Celso J. Perez, Lee Gelernt, Daniel A. Galindo, Scott Michelman and Arthur B. Spitzer of the ACLU;  Robert Silverman of Oxfam America; and by Karla M. Vargas and Efren C. Olivares of Texas Civil Rights Project.

The Refugee Children Class Action Lawsuit is P.J.E.S., et al. v Chad F. Wolf, Acting Secretary of Homeland Security, et al., Case No. 1:20-cv-02245-EGS-GMH, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

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