The US Supreme Court has ordered the continuation of restrictions on immigration put in place by Donald Trump when he was President.
The US government had imposed the limits at the beginning of the pandemic saying that it was meant to prevent the spread of Covid.
The Supreme Court on 27 December 2022 said that the rules will remain in place until a final judgment after hearings in February 2023.
Immigration advocates had challenged the policy in court, saying that it goes against American and international obligations to people fleeing to the US to escape persecution. They've also argued that the policy is outdated as coronavirus treatments improve.
A federal judge sided with them in November and set a Dec. 21 deadline to end the policy. Conservative-leaning states appealed to the Supreme Court, warning that an increase in migration would take a toll on public services and cause an "unprecedented calamity" that they said the federal government had no plan to deal with.
(With agency inputs)