U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw in San Diego ordered that the Trump administration not deport any immigrant parents for the next seven days. Issued on Monday, the order is in response to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of immigrant parents facing rapid deportation.

With the one week reprieve, immigrant parents will have breathing room to decide their next steps, and if they want to leave their immigrant children behind in the U.S. to pursue asylum status, Reuters reported.

Immigration Lawyers Are Working to Stop Deportations

The Trump administration’s zero-tolerance immigration policy separated immigrant parents and their children the moment they were apprehended at the border. President Trump halted the practice of separating parents and children on June 20 after international outcry.

The courts ordered the administration to ensure that all separated children be reunited with their parents by July 26. Close to 2,500 immigrant children remain separated from their parents and housed in detention centers all over the country.

Hundreds of immigration lawyers have been busy working feverishly to stop the rapid deportations of the parents.

The order gave lawyers more time to “figure out what reunification is going to mean for our clients,” said Beth Krause to Reuters, a supervising lawyer at Legal Aid’s Immigrant Youth Project.

The one week reprieve given by Judge Sabraw will also enable lawyers to determine how to proceed with their clients once they have been reunited with their separated children.

Another Judge Orders Families Be Not Moved Without At Least 48 Hours Notice

Later on Monday evening, U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain in Manhattan agreed with an emergency injunction filed by the Legal Aid Society. She temporarily banned the government from moving the dozens of separated immigrant children that are represented by the Legal Aid Society in New York without 48 hours notice.

Legal Aid, like the ACLU case in California, sought the injunction claiming the government was not giving them enough time to find, meet and consult with all the affected immigrants.

Unless a judge extends the temporary order, Judge Swain’s temporary relief expires on July 19. The government appealed the ruling and attempted to have U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman in Manhattan overrule Swain’s decision, but Furman said he had not read the related paperwork and declined to rule immediately.

Jorge Baron, executive director of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, told Reuters that Sabraw’s broader ban on rapid deportations “buys us a little bit of time.”

“I am still uncertain we have made contact with all the parents who are detained in our particular region,” he said.

 

Scenes From May Day March for Worker & Immigrant Rights in Los Angeles #FightBackLA