A federal judge has prohibited the controversial family separation policy that former President Donald Trump instituted, and then rescinded, during his presidency, according to the Associated Press.

BREAKING: Federal judge prohibits separating migrant families at US border for 8 years https://t.co/OlVa9IDa26

— The Associated Press (@AP) December 8, 2023

U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw approved a settlement which will prohibit the separation of migrant families at the southern border for at least eight years, per the AP.

The settlement, which is between the United States Justice Department and families represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, does not offer any of the families compensation but does leave room for potential benefits for families that had previously been separated, the outlet noted. (RELATED: ICE Nabs Fugitive Wanted For Assaulting Child Who Was Previously Released By Border Patrol) 

Those benefits include temporary legal status for up to three years under a policy called “humanitarian parole,” family reunification at the expense of the U.S. government, a year of housing, three years of counseling, and legal aid for immigration court, according to the AP.

Trump recently defended the policy, despite revoking it on his own accord in 2018, telling Univision, “When you hear that you’re going to be separated from your family, you don’t eat. When you think you’re going to come into the United States with your family, you come,” Trump claimed.

“It stopped people from coming by the hundreds of thousands because when they hear family separation, they say, well, we better not go. And they didn’t go,” he concluded, the outlet noted.

Trump also claimed the policy was piloted by the Obama administration, saying, “You know, Obama did it and Obama is the one that built the cells. Remember, they said, oh, Trump is building cells, cells. And then somebody, some wonderful person said, no, these were built by Obama because they had pictures of it from like 2014 or something. These were built by Obama, the Obama administration.”