Sarah Pierce, a policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan research group, warned that the ruling could fuel a surge of migration to the border. Some families turned away have responded to similar court decisions by seeking protection again. The Department of Homeland Securitys intelligence analysts have said that the pandemics toll on economies in Central America is likely to result in an uptick of migration in the coming months.
As good as this order is for the children who are subject to it, from the perspective of the Biden administration, this creates a new challenge: How do they plan on Day 1 to handle increased flows of children at the southern border? Ms. Pierce said. This has really opened a can of worms for the incoming administration.
Mr. Bidens transition teams did not answer questions about the looming challenge.
Children who cross the border alone are supposed to be placed in shelters managed by the Department of Health and Human Services within 72 hours of being detained. They can then be placed with relatives acting as sponsors as their immigration cases are processed.
Top border officials argued that because of the pandemic, public health law had to take precedent over immigration laws.
There are times when someones want and need to claim asylum is superseded by something of far greater value, and thats lives of American citizens, Mark Morgan, the acting commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, said last month.
Mr. Morgan argued that without the rule, the lives of Border Patrol agents and others would be put at risk from overflowing border facilities. But the immigration advocacy organizations bringing the case argued that the health emergency actually exposed agents more readily because they had to arrange for children to be taken by airplane back to their home countries. The shelters those children would normally be placed in were capable of adopting social distancing guidelines, the lawyers argued.
The court appeared to agree, finding that the Trump administration had not provided scientific evidence justifying the rapid deportations.read more
Judge Halts ‘Public Health’ Expulsions of Children at the Border
