Federal judge blocks Trump’s order to suspend asylum applications at the border

A federal judge on Wednesday blocked Donald Trump’s order suspending asylum applications by migrants at the Mexican border. In a 128-page decision released Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss said that the executive branch was overstepping its authority and violating U.S. immigration law. The president cannot “adopt an alternative immigration system, which supplants the statutes that Congress has enacted and the regulations that the responsible agencies have promulgated,” Moss stated.

The District of Columbia judge adds that neither current immigration laws nor the Constitution grant the president the authority to unilaterally deny asylum to people already on U.S. soil, regardless of how they entered. Moss’s ban would take effect in 14 days, during which time the Trump administration is expected to appeal the decision, which would likely take the case to a higher court.

The administration’s argument is that, given that the immigration situation is extraordinary—an invasion, they claim—and constitutes a national security emergency, the president is empowered to push through policies that override Congress.

Moss’ decision comes less than a week after the Supreme Court ruled that federal judges do not have the authority to issue nationwide injunctions, meaning they cannot preemptively pause federally implemented policies. That order from the nation’s highest court takes effect in the last week of July, so Moss’ decision also raises new legal questions to be resolved. In his ruling Wednesday, the judge also agreed to certify the asylum seekers in the case as a class. Class-action lawsuits were left out of the Supreme Court’s decision.

The decision released on Wednesday was the answer to a lawsuit filed months ago by several civil rights, immigrant, and refugee organizations against the closure of the asylum system at the US-Mexico border, and on behalf of several affected individuals. The plaintiffs’ main argument is that the order, which Trump signed on his first day back in the White House, puts at risk the lives of thousands of people who seek refuge in the United States for various reasons.

“Under the proclamation, the Administration is doing exactly what Congress mandated by law that the United States should not do,” the immigrant rights groups wrote in their complaint. “It is returning asylum seekers—not just single adults, but also families—to countries where they face persecution or torture, without allowing them to invoke the protections Congress has provided them.”

The lawsuit also challenged the president’s power to eliminate protections enacted by Congress for people fleeing persecution in other countries, representing one of the most restrictive measures in Trump’s crusade against immigration.

Lee Gelernt, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) attorney who argued the case, spoke quickly after the ruling. “The ruling not only means the U.S. will once again be a safe haven for those fleeing persecution but also reaffirms that the laws Congress enacts must be respected by the president.”

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