A US federal court judge has widened a halt of a Trump-era immigration rule which sought to speed up deportations of migrants to third nations without observing legal protections for those at risk of persecution, torture, or death.
On Friday, US District Judge Brian Murphy in Boston granted a preliminary injunction stopping the administration from carrying out the embattled policy while the legal battle rages on. The move, first suspended by Murphy last month, aimed to let the government remove migrants with final removal orders to countries other than their native nation often without providing them an opportunity to assert claims of likely harm.
Immigration activists claim the policy deprives migrants of basic rights and contravenes US commitments in international law. The ruling maintains current protections for migrants pending the progression of the case.
The ruling is a defeat for the Trump administration’s overall immigration agenda, which also encompasses tighter enforcement and fewer legal channels for asylum-seekers. The Department of Justice hasn’t addressed the decision.
The injunction allows final removal order migrants to continue to have the opportunity to pursue protection from removal to nations where they might suffer harm, keeping an essential safeguard in the US immigration system intact.
