Federal court orders temporary halt to Obama administration's 'no-release' policy

A federal court in Washington, D.C., on Friday temporarily stopped the Obama administration's 'no-release' policy, which detained some asylum-seeking mothers and their children, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The American Civil Liberties Union had filed the lawsuit last December, which challenged the policy of holding women and children despite their having passed credible-fear screenings. The ACLU argued that those awaiting asylum hearings were not a flight risk, and thus should be released ahead of their court dates. The federal court agreed with the ACLU, rejecting the administration's argument that the no-release policy was necessary in order to control what could have otherwise been a mass influx of immigrants into the country.

The "incantation of the magic word 'national security' without further substantiation is simply not enough to justify significant deprivations of liberty," the court wrote in its decision.

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The U.S. government is expected to appeal the ruling.