Judge Blocks Trump Policies Fast-Tracking Children's Asylum Cases

A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked President Donald Trump's administration from enforcing new policies that immigrant rights groups said were designed to fast-track the deportations of unaccompanied children seeking asylum, according to Reuters' report Friday, read in full this cycle. U.S. District Judge Brendan Hurson in Greenbelt, Maryland, issued a temporary restraining order preventing U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services from dramatically shortening the amount of notice children get for asylum interviews and restricting their ability to reschedule them.

Hurson ordered the administration to reinstate the prior policies governing the process, Reuters reported. His ruling remains in effect until November 13 while he considers whether to issue a longer-term block. The order was requested by legal service providers representing immigrant children, including the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights and The Door, who argued the policies were unlawful and inconsistent with statutory child-protection requirements. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees USCIS, did not respond to a request for comment, Reuters reported.

The two policies at issue, adopted by USCIS in August and September, eliminated a 21-day advance notice requirement for asylum interviews — children were instead sometimes given fewer than 24 hours' notice — and allowed rescheduling only on a showing of 'exceptional circumstances,' a stricter standard than before. Hurson said the minimal notice was inconsistent with the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008, which requires the asylum process to take into account the specialized needs of unaccompanied children, and that the rescheduling standard ran afoul of the Administrative Procedure Act. The case is The Door v. Edlow, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. For a border state deciding immigration questions at the ballot box on Tuesday, the ruling keeps the older, slower interview process in place while the court decides what comes next.