Judge rejects coronavirus release of illegal immigrant families

A federal judge rejected a demand for to free all illegal immigrant families being held in detention during coronavirus, ruling Wednesday that even with heightened risks of the disease in detention facilities, it was too far of a leap to do a “blanket release.” The ruling by Judge James Boasberg, sitting in Washington, D.C., is a major blow to activists, who had pleaded for relief. It’s also not the final word. Another federal judge in California has ordered all the children in the facilities released, with a deadline looming next week. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which runs the facilities, is pondering whether that means separating the families and releasing the children to sponsors, releasing the parents too, or getting the parents to agree to keep the children with them in the facilities. Judge Boasberg said in the case before him, ICE has taken steps to try to limit spread of coronavirus, already releasing many detainees and cutting the population by about 70%, imposing temperature checks on staff and voluntary testing and mandatory quarantining for new arrivals in the detainee population...MORE