DHS ends plan to separate women and children at US border News
DHS ends plan to separate women and children at US border

[JURIST] A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesman announced [materials] Wednesday that President Donald Trump’s administration was no longer planning to separate women and children at the US’ southern border as a means of deterring immigration. Speaking to a US Senate [official website] panel, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly [official website] stated that it was no longer within the Trump administration’s plans to separate families. Speaking anonymously, a DHS official attributed [Reuters report] the change in procedure to declining numbers of women attempting to travel to the US with their children.

Trump’s travel bans have engendered significant legal controversy leading to nationwide litigation. Last week, a judge for the US District Court for the District of Hawaii granted [JURIST report] the state of Hawaii’s request to convert the temporary restraining order blocking President Trump’s travel ban earlier this month into a preliminary injunction. Earlier that week, the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ordered an expedited schedule [JURIST report] for the appeal of a lower court ruling blocking the Trump travel ban. Two weeks ago a Washington federal judge who ruled against Trump’s first travel ban declined [JURIST report] to extend the injunction on the revised ban. That same week, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit denied [JURIST report] a rehearing on Trump’s first ban noting that the issue had become moot because the DOJ had withdrawn its appeal on the first ban. The DOJ had requested a hold on the appeal proceedings in February but later withdrew [JURIST reports] it after Trump signed his revised ban.