Court Gives DOJ 30 Days To Reunite Migrant Families

The Guardian reports:

US immigration agents can no longer separate immigrant parents and children caught crossing the border from Mexico illegally and must work to reunite those families that had been split up in custody, a federal judge has ruled. The US district court judge Dana Sabraw late on Tuesday night granted the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit filed over family separations.

Sabraw ordered US border authorities to reunite separated families within 30 days, setting a deadline in a process that has so far yielded uncertainty about when children might again see their parents. If children are younger than five, they must be reunified within 14 days.

The move – which came after the supreme court’s ruling upholding the travel ban targeting Muslim-majority countries – could open up a legal battle with the justice department which did not immediately respond to a request for a comment on the multistate lawsuit.