NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. government canceled all deportation hearings for immigrants not in detention after immigration judges and government prosecutors complained busy courts were putting them at risk of COVID-19 infection.
Kathryn Mattingly, a spokeswoman for the Executive Office for Immigration Review, the arm of the U.S. Department of Justice that runs the nation’s immigration courts, said in statement just after midnight the closures were effective March 18, 2020, through April 10, 2020. Cases of immigrants stuck in detention will be heard as scheduled.
Mattingly did not immediately respond to a question about whether hearings for migrants returned to Mexico under a