On Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit handed down an important ruling in Huisha-Huisha v. Mayorkas, No. 21-5200—an immigration case in which the ACLU and other immigrants’ rights organizations have challenged the federal government’s policy of expelling immigrant families at the United States border on public health grounds. In a unanimous ruling, the D.C. Circuit made clear that the government may only exercise that authority if it sends those families to countries where they will not be persecuted or tortured. The decision is an enormous victory for immigrant families who come to our shores seeking refuge from life-threatening conditions.

Kaplan Hecker attorneys Ray Tolentino and Mahrah Taufique filed an amicus brief on behalf of a group of distinguished historical scholars with expertise in immigration, medicine, and public health. KHF’s brief carefully explained the history undergirding the Public Health Service Act, and powerfully demonstrated that the government’s invocation of Title 42 to summarily expel families at the border is ahistorical, unlawful, and overbroad.

Read more in today’s opinion and our amicus brief.