A federal judge in San Francisco has banned President Trump from refusing asylum to migrants who illegally cross the U.S. border.
U.S. District Judge Jon S. Tigar issued a temporary restraining order after hearing arguments from the ACLU and the Center for Constitutional Rights, which filed a lawsuit after Trump issued a proclamation on November 9 that anyone who crosses the border would not be eligible for asylum.
The proclamation stated that those seeking entry into the U.S. can only do so temporarily at arranged ports of entry, allowing for “orderly processing.”
“But aliens who enter the United States unlawfully through the southern border in contravention of this proclamation will be ineligible to be granted asylum,” writes the President.
The President also argued in the proclamation that “the arrival of large numbers of aliens will contribute to the overloading of our immigration and asylum system and to the release of thousands of aliens into the interior of the United States.”
Judge Tigar–who was nominated to the court by President Obama in 2012–said that the president could not “rewrite immigration laws”, writing, “Whatever the scope of the President’s authority, he may not rewrite the immigration laws to impose a condition that Congress has expressly forbidden.”
The temporary restraining order will remain in place until December 19.
Department of Homeland Security officials announced yesterday that over 500 criminals are part of the group of migrants stationed just outside the U.S. border.
Officials said that “most of the caravan members are not women and children,” and that a majority of the group is made up of teen and adult males. The women and children–they claimed–were strategically placed at the front of the line to gain sympathetic media coverage.
