A federal judge on Thursday, September 16 ordered the US government to suspend the immediate refoulement of migrant families arrested at the border under cover of the fight against Covid-19.
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Magistrate Emmet Sullivan, who has given authorities 14 days to comply with his ruling, said there were enough alternative measures to limit the spread of the virus.
"
Considering the wide availability of tests, vaccines and other health measures, the Court is not convinced that the transmission of Covid-19 during border procedures cannot be contained,
" he wrote in its fifty-page long judgment.
Historical migratory flows
At the start of the pandemic, the government of Republican Donald Trump invoked a health rule to order the deportation of all migrants who entered the United States illegally.
Since arriving at the White House, Democrat Joe Biden has suspended the practice for unaccompanied minors, while continuing to turn back families and adults to the chagrin of migrant advocacy groups, which on Thursday welcomed the judge's decision Sullivan.
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"
President Biden should have put an end to this cruel and illegal policy for a long time and the court is right to reject it today,
" said Omar Jadwat of the human rights organization ACLU. However, it is likely that the government, faced with historic migratory flows on the border with Mexico, will appeal. More than 200,000 arrests were still made in August at the southern border, including 86,000 migrants traveling with families, according to the latest official figures. This is the highest level for twenty years. The Republican opposition has accused President Biden for months of causing a "
migration crisis
" by relaxing the measures of his predecessor.
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