Judge tells US officials, ACLU to come up with asylum plan

A federal judge on Friday called on the U.S. government and the American Civil Liberties Union to come up with a plan to address the rights of parents and children separated at the U.S.-Mexico border to seek asylum.

The request was made during a hearing a day after U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw extended a freeze on deportations of recently reunified families, giving a reprieve to hundreds of children and their parents who want to remain in the United States.

Sabraw wrote in issuing the order that "hasty removal of these children and their parents at the expense of an ordered process provided by law" would go against the public's interest and deprive the minors of their right to seek asylum.

During Friday's hearing, Sabraw asked the two sides to come to an agreement over whether some parents who were deported without their children should be returned to the U.S. to pursue asylum with the minors.

Lee Gelernt, an ACLU attorney representing separated families, said some deported parents should be allowed to return to accompany their children through the asylum process. He told the judge others should be let back in because they were misled into believing that if they agreed to be deported, they would be reunited with their children.