A U.S. district judge on Thursday blocked the expulsion of migrant families caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, exempting them from an order put in place by former President Donald Trump's administration early in the COVID-19 pandemic.
Judge Emmett Sullivan said the block of the order would go into effect in 14 days.
U.S. President Joe Biden has faced growing pressure from some immigration advocates, health experts and fellow Democrats to end the so-called Title 42 order that has essentially cut off access to asylum for hundreds of thousands of migrants.
Title 42, which has been in effect since March 2020, will still apply to single adults, who represent most of the migrants arrested trying to enter the United States.
Biden in February exempted unaccompanied children from the expulsion policy, and his administration has been applying it to fewer families apprehended at the border.
Judge Blocks Expulsions of Migrant Families Under Trump-Era Order
FILE - Asylum-seeking migrants from Central America are processed by U.S. Border Patrol agents after crossing the Rio Grande into the United States from Mexico, in Penitas, Texas, July 8, 2021.
WASHINGTON —