The families were supposed to be protected under a 2023 settlement.
The families, according to U.S. District Judge Dana M. Sabraw, were originally separated at the southern border during the first Trump administration’s “Zero Tolerance” policy. They were supposed to be protected under a 2023 settlement that granted them temporary legal status and a path to reunification, but they were deported last summer.
In the eight-page ruling, Judge Sabraw found that the government’s removal of the families rendered the protections of the settlement “illusory.”
“The manner in which each of these removals was affected, in addition to being unlawful, involved lies, deception, and coercion,” Sabraw wrote.