Judge Jon S. Tigar of the US District Court for the Northern District of California said the proclamation issued on Nov. 9 by President Donald Trump was an effort on the president’s part to rewrite immigration laws.
“Whatever the scope of the President’s authority, he may not rewrite the immigration laws to impose a condition that Congress has expressly forbidden,” Judge Jon Tigar says in the order.
“Asylum seekers will be put at increased risk of violence and other harms at the border, and many will be deprived of meritorious asylum claims,” he said, according to Politico.
Numbers of immigrants growing at the border
More than 2,000 Central American immigrants began arriving at the border town of Tijuana over the past few days. On Monday morning, the Border Patrol closed northbound lanes into San Ysidro, Calif. for three hours at the Tijuana port of entry. This is the busiest point of entry into the U.S.
According to CNN, there are another 3,000 migrants gathering in Mexicali, Mexico, another border city about 100 miles away, UN High Commissioner for Refugees spokeswoman Francesca Fontanini said.
This was done “after @CBP officials were notified that a large # of caravan migrants were planning to rush the border in an attempt to gain illegal access to the US,” Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen tweeted Monday afternoon.
Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Buchanan questioned the “severity” of the DHS secretary’s threat, saying if there were “reliable reports” that a mob was about to rush the border, then they would close the ports.
Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Calif), the likely next appropriations chair for the DHS subcommittee, joined Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) in writing President Trump Monday urging him to rescind the presidential actions restricting asylum access at the U.S.-Mexico border, which, they said, “violate domestic and international law.”
Trump’s attempts to bypass the Constitution
The temporary restraining order issued late Monday night is effective nationwide and will remain in effect until December 19, when the judge has scheduled another hearing, or further order of the court.
While the ruling is another setback to further the Trump administration’s immigration policies, the clear winners were the American Civil Liberties Union, the Southern Poverty Law Center and other groups who argued it is illegal to block someone based on how they entered the country.
The Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security sided with the White House, arguing the president had a right to protect the country as an national security measure.
“Our asylum system is broken, and it is being abused by tens of thousands of meritless claims every year,” the departments said, according to the Associated Press. “We look forward to continuing to defend the Executive Branch’s legitimate and well-reasoned exercise of its authority to address the crisis at our southern border.”
