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A panel of three 9th Circuit Court of Appeals judges on Tuesday overruled a lower court’s decision to significantly reduce the number of detainees held at the Adelanto ICE Processing Facility northeast of Los Angeles.

The decision by judges Barry Silverman, Jacqueline Nguyen and Daniel Collins came in response to an emergency request by the Trump administration to halt the April 23 preliminary injunction ruling by U.S. District Judge Terry Hatter. A preliminary injunction is temporarily issued early in a lawsuit to stop defendants from continuing harmful actions while the case proceeds.

In order to protect detainees from a potential coronavirus outbreak, Hatter had declared that the population at Adelanto — one of the largest immigrant detention facilities in the country — must decrease “to such a level that would allow the remaining detainees to maintain a social distance of six feet from each other at all times.” He had ordered ICE not to allow any new detainees at the facility and to reduce the population by 250 people by April 30.

Adelanto has space for nearly 2,000 detainees but currently holds about 1,200. Nationwide, 29,700 people are in ICE custody.

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