A federal judge delivered a major blow Wednesday to President Trump’s efforts to crack down on illegal immigration – blocking the administration from denying migrants the chance to seek asylum.
DC US District Judge Randolph Moss, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, said his ruling would take effect July 16, giving the Trump administration two weeks seek a stay.
Immigrant rights groups and more than a dozen asylum-seekers sued the Trump administration earlier this year after the president issued an executive order on the first day of his second term barring migrants who cross the border illegally from seeking asylum.
Moss ruled that neither the Constitution nor federal immigration law “grants the President … authority to replace the comprehensive rules and procedures set forth in the [Immigration and Nationality Act] and the governing regulations with an extra-statutory, extraregulatory regime for repatriating or removing individuals from the United States, without an opportunity to apply for asylum or withholding of removal.”
The judge acknowledged that “the Executive Branch faces enormous challenges in preventing and deterring unlawful entry into the United States and in adjudicating the overwhelming backlog of asylum claims of those who have entered the country” but ruled Trump does not have “unilateral authority to limit the rights of aliens present in the United States to apply for asylum” or use the Constitution’s Invasion Clause to “to adopt an alternative immigration system, which supplants the statutes that Congress has enacted.”
Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin slammed the ruling as a threat to “the safety and security of Americans.”
“The President secured the border in historic fashion by using every available legal tool provided by Congress,” McLaughlin said in a statement. “Today, a rogue district judge took those tools away, threatening the safety and security of Americans and ignoring a Supreme Court decision issued only days earlier admonishing district courts for granting nationwide injunctions.”
“The Trump Administration is committed to restoring integrity to our immigration system and to our justice system, and we expect a higher court to vindicate us.”
Wednesday’s ruling comes a day after border czar Tom Homan announced that federal authorities encountered just 6,070 migrants attempting to enter the US illegally in all of June – a 93.1% drop from nationwide Border Patrol encounters in June 2024, when 87,606 migrants were nabbed trying to enter the country illegally.
Homan credited the sharp drop in illegal border-crossings to Trump’s sweeping efforts to swiftly deport illegal immigrants in the interior of the country – dubbing it, “The Trump Effect.”
The administration contends that the asylum system has been abused, and attracts migrants who know they will be allowed to live and work in the US for years while their claims are adjudicated in backlogged immigration courts.
The plaintiffs argued that Trump’s order summarily deports families and individuals to countries where they are at “grave risk of persecution with no recourse.”
“This is a hugely important decision,” American Civil Liberties Union attorney Lee Gelernt, who argued on behalf of the defense, said in a statement. “Not only will it save the lives of families fleeing grave danger, it reaffirms that the president cannot ignore the laws Congress has passed and the most basic premise of our country’s separation of powers.”
“Federal law unequivocally guarantees the right of refugees to seek asylum and the right not to be returned to face torture,” said Arthur Spitzer, senior counsel at the ACLU of the District of Columbia. “President Trump’s attempt to eliminate these life-or-death rights with the swipe of a pen and under false pretenses had no legal basis, as the court today made clear.”
Migrants seeking asylum must demonstrate a fear of persecution in their home country on the basis of their race, religion, nationality, or by belonging to a particular social or political group.
