But late Friday, Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee, blocked the administration from implementing that memo, though he stayed his order for seven days “to allow the federal government time to seek emergency relief at the appellate level.”
Kacsmaryk said that the Biden administration’s termination of the policy violated the Administrative Procedure Act, a law that dictates what procedures agencies must go through to implement certain policies.
Kacsmaryk also concluded that one of the key reasons the memo did provide for ending the policy was arbitrary, in violation of the APA, which prohibits agencies from taking “arbitrary” and “capricious” actions.
For those subject to it, that meant waiting months, if not years, in squalid conditions and under the threat of extortion, sexual assault and kidnapping.
