NewsA federal judge on Thursday ordered [text, PDF] the government to return two asylum seekers to the US after they were put on a flight to El Salvador.
Earlier this week, the American Civil Liberties Union filed [JURIST report] a lawsuit against US Attorney General Jeff Sessions [official website] on behalf of the mother and daughter and other women and children who were denied asylum because of tighter restrictions on asylum eligibility imposed by the attorney general.
US District Judge Emmet Sullivan [official profile] criticized the government’s decision to deport a woman in the process of challenging their deportation in court and threatened to hold the defendants in this case, which include Sessions, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen [official website] and other government officials, in contempt if they did not comply with his order to return them to the country in a timely manner.
The defendants have until 5:00 PM on Friday to file a report informing the court of their compliance with the order.
