WASHINGTON – Washington, D.C., has enacted emergency regulations to stop the federal government’s plan to house unaccompanied migrant children there.

The Washington Post reports the regulations by Mayor Muriel E. Bowser’s administration were adopted Friday and prohibit licensing facilities housing more than 15 residents. They also require the director of the city’s child welfare agency to sign off on facilities housing between eight to 15 children. The rules expire in December.

Maryland-based Dynamic Service Solution applied to open a temporary 200-bed District shelter. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awarded it a $20.5 million contract to operate the shelter for children ages 12 to 17.

DHHS has defended the shelter and its treatment of unaccompanied minors, emphasizing that those children were apprehended alone, unlike migrant children separated from their families.