The San Francisco-based 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday denied the Trump administration’s effort to delay a judge’s order blocking enforcement of its asylum policy.
“We agree with the district court that the Rule is likely inconsistent with existing United States law. Accordingly, we DENY the Government’s motion for a stay,” reads the ruling from a three-judge panel of the court.
{mosads}In early November, the Trump administration clamped down on asylum claims as part of its broader efforts to crack down on illegal immigration.
The Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security had earlier published a joint rule prohibiting certain people caught crossing the U.S. southern border from Mexico between ports of entry from claiming asylum.
Judge Jon Tigar of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California then sided with opponents of President Trump’s policy, granting their request for a temporary restraining order against the policy denying asylum to migrants who enter the U.S. illegally.
“Whatever the scope of the President’s authority, he may not rewrite the immigration laws to impose a condition that Congress has expressly forbidden,” Tigar, an appointee of former President Obama, wrote in his decision last month.
Trump blasted the decision while dismissing Tigar as “an Obama judge” — a remark that drew a rare public rebuke from Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.
“We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges,” Roberts responded in a statement before Thanksgiving. “What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them.”
Trump continued to blast the decision last month while ripping into the 9th Circuit, which has issued a number of rulings against the administration and was set to rule on the federal judge’s decision. Trump called the appeals court “a complete & total disaster.”
The Trump administration appealed Tigar’s decision in late November, saying that court’s delay, which lasts for 30 days, undermined the president’s determination that an immediate temporary suspension of entry between ports of entry was necessary to address the ongoing and increasing crisis facing our immigration system.
Friday’s decision denies that appeal, meaning that the ban on immigrants seeking asylum after entering the country illegally remains unapplied.
Read the decision below: