AsylumFederal judge blocks Trump order limiting asylum

Published 21 November 2018

A U.S. federal judge has granted a temporary restraining order preventing the Trump administration from carrying out new immigration rules that would block asylum status for people who did not enter the United States at a designated port of entry. President Donald Trump issued the rule in a November 9 proclamation, saying it was necessary to deal with the expected arrival of thousands of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border who he said “appear to have no lawful basis for admission into our country.”

 

A U.S. federal judge has granted a temporary restraining order preventing the Trump administration from carrying out new immigration rules that would block asylum status for people who did not enter the United States at a designated port of entry.

President Donald Trump issued the rule in a 9 November proclamation, saying it was necessary to deal with the expected arrival of thousands of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border who he said “appear to have no lawful basis for admission into our country.”

The American Civil Liberties Union and other groups quickly filed a legal challenge and sought an injunction against the new rules while the case makes its way through the courts.

U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar issued his ruling late Monday, saying Congress has “clearly commanded” through the Immigration and Naturalization Act (INA) that anyone who arrives in the United States may apply for asylum no matter where they entered, and that Trump’s rule “irreconcilably conflicts with the INA and the expressed intent of Congress.”

He barred the government from carrying out the new rule for one month, setting the next hearing in the case for December 19.

Tigar said if allowed to go into effect, the rule would put asylum seekers “at increased risk of violence and other harms at the border, and many will be deprived of meritorious asylum claims.” He wrote that the government in its arguments “offers nothing in support of the new rule that outweighs the need to avoid these harms.”

About 3,000 migrants have arrived in the Mexican border city of Tijuana, and more are expected to make there way there soon. They join what was already a large group waiting for their chance to seek asylum at the San Ysidro border crossing, the main port of entry to the U.S. city of San Diego.

U.S. authorities process about 100 asylum claims each day at San Ysidro, meaning wait times will be long.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection and some of the thousands of troops Trump ordered to the border last month briefly shut down lanes at the San Ysidro port on Monday to set up additional