BOSTON (AP) - Federal immigration authorities have partly reversed course on a controversial decision to stop considering requests for foreign nationals to remain in the country for medical treatment or other special circumstances.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services says letters will go out this week reopening all cases pending as of August 7.

The agency said on that date that it would no longer consider the requests and ordered all pending applicants to leave the country within 33 days.

Mahsa Khanbabai of the American Immigration Lawyers Association says the reprieve isn’t sufficient because it doesn’t address new requests.

The American Civil Liberties Union says it’s weighing a lawsuit.

U.S. Rep. Judy Chu, a California Democrat who called for a hearing slated for Friday on the issue, says the administration needs to reverse the decision entirely.

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