Judge Blocks Trump's Asylum Fast-Track for Unaccompanied Children, Restoring the 21-Day Notice Rule Until November 13

GREENBELT, Md. - A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked President Donald Trump's administration from enforcing new policies that immigrant rights groups said were designed to fast-track the deportations of unaccompanied children seeking asylum, Reuters reported. U.S. District Judge Brendan Hurson issued a temporary restraining order preventing U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services from dramatically shortening the amount of notice children get for asylum interviews and restricting their ability to reschedule them, and ordered the administration to reinstate the prior policies. The ruling remains in effect until November 13 while Hurson considers a longer-term block. The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees USCIS, did not respond to a request for comment.

The policies, adopted by USCIS in August and September, are the heart of the case. Under one, the agency moved to eliminate a 21-day advance-notice requirement for asylum interviews and began instead providing unaccompanied children little notice - sometimes fewer than 24 hours. Under a separate policy, interviews could be rescheduled only on a showing of 'exceptional circumstances,' a stricter standard than before. The lawsuit, filed two weeks ago by legal service providers including the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights and The Door, contended the administration was carrying out what the plaintiffs called a cruel and unlawful scheme meant to rush the deportations, and argued the policies made it difficult, if not impossible, to advocate for the thousands of children they serve.

Hurson, who was appointed by President Joe Biden, held that the minimal notice was inconsistent with the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008, which requires the asylum process to take into account the specialized needs of unaccompanied children - an obligation he said extends to the procedure leading up to the interviews. He held the stricter rescheduling standard likewise ran afoul of the Administrative Procedure Act, rejecting the administration's contention that its rule merely mirrored federal law. The case is The Door v. Edlow, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. For Houston - a city where immigration cases are a daily part of the federal docket and of family life - the order means the old notice and rescheduling rules govern children's asylum interviews at least through November 13.