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Judge blocks Trump asylum restriction: reports
WASHINGTON, Aug 3, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – A judge on Friday blocked a move by US
President Donald Trump’s administration to stop migrants from claiming asylum
unless they had entered the country at an official border crossing, news
outlets reported.
The policy, enacted by Trump last year, is among a host of measures his
government has taken against the movement of hundreds of thousands of
migrants from Central America and elsewhere who have recently tried to cross
into the US from Mexico and request asylum.
Federal judge Randolph Moss, sitting in Washington, ruled that the policy
was “in excess of statutory… authority,” ABC News reported.
Moss said it contradicts standing US immigration law, which allows
undocumented people who are physically present in the country to apply for
asylum even if they did not enter at an official port of entry, The Hill
newspaper said.
The policy had earlier been blocked by a judge in San Francisco, a ruling
the government is appealing.
Trump’s immigration policy has been the subject of numerous court
challenges.
Last week, a federal judge in California issued a preliminary injunction
blocking the administration’s new rule barring most immigrants from obtaining
asylum in the US if they transit through Mexico.
That policy would have effectively prevented most Central American asylum
seekers from gaining entry into the United States at the southern border, as
the majority come through Mexico.
Day later, Guatemala signed an agreement with the US that, according to
Washington, makes it a “safe third country,” meaning migrants who want to
seek asylum in the United States but travel through Guatemala must request
asylum in the Central American country.
The number of border-crossers detained by the US Border Patrol surged to a
13-year high of more than 144,000 in May before easing to 104,000 in June —
still up 142 percent from a year earlier.
Most are families from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
BSS/AFP/SSS/1125 hrs