Federal judge prohibits separating migrant families at US border for 8 years

By ELLIOT SPAGAT
Associated Press

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A federal judge is prohibiting the separation of families at the border for purposes of deterring immigration for eight years. U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw’s ruling on Friday in San Diego preemptively blocks resumption of a lightning-rod, Trump-era policy that the former president hasn’t ruled out if elected to a second term next year. It ends a long-running lawsuit between the Justic Department and the American Civil Liberties Union, which sued over a “zero-tolerance” policy on illegal immigration that resulted in more than 5,000 children being separated from their parents at the border during the Trump administration.