Trump cannot prevent migrants from seeking asylum at US border, judge says

A US federal judge on Wednesday ruled that President Donald Trump exceeded his authority when he signed an executive order in January that barred all migrants at the US-Mexico border.

“The president cannot adopt an alternative immigration system, which supplants the statutes that Congress has enacted,” US district judge Randolph Moss said in a 128-page opinion. 

Trump, he added, does not possess “an extra-statutory, extra-regulatory regime for repatriating or removing individuals from the United States, without an opportunity to apply for asylum”. 

The American Civil Liberties Union, as well as a litany of other immigrant rights groups, brought the case against the government, arguing that preventing asylum seekers from a chance at protection in the US violates congressional mandates as well as international treaties. 

“No president has the authority to unilaterally block people who come to our border seeking safety,” Keren Zwick, director of litigation at the National Immigrant Justice Center, said in a press release shortly after the decision was announced.

“The courts have repeatedly sided with us on this issue, and we will continue to fight cruel policies, under any administration, that harm individuals and families who flee persecution,” he added. 

Javier Hidalgo, legal director at the immigrant advocacy organisation Raices, said the judicial branch “is what stands between us and anarchy”.

“The Trump administration’s prerogative is once again found to be unlawful. It is increasingly clear where the illegality lies, and it is not with the immigrant families upon whom this administration is inflicting unfathomable harm”. 

The Trump administration has two weeks to appeal the decision. 

‘Invasion’

Just hours after being sworn in on 20 January, Trump signed an executive order declaring a “national emergency” at the southern border and blocking migration north of Mexico.

This was necessary, he said, because of the “invasion” of migrants from “cartels, criminal gangs, known terrorists, human traffickers, smugglers, unvetted military-age males from foreign adversaries, and illicit narcotics that harm Americans, including America”.

“America’s sovereignty is under attack,” the order said. 

Trump authorised the Pentagon to deploy “as many units or members of the Armed Forces, including the Ready Reserve and the National Guard, as the Secretary of Defense determines to be appropriate to support the activities of the Secretary of Homeland Security in obtaining complete operational control of the southern border”.

Additional funds were also allocated to construct physical barriers and deploy more surveillance drones along the border. 

That executive order was followed by another one halting all refugee admissions to the US and ending federal funding for refugee programmes to help with resettlement, transportation, and education. 

Trump has also moved to end birthright citizenship and is now prioritising a crackdown on naturalised immigrants who may have criminal or even civil violations dating back several years. Birthright citizenship is the legal right for people born in the US to acquire citizenship under the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution automatically.

ProPublica, an investigative journalism outfit, has called the decisions to go after US citizens and lawful residents “unprecedented”.