In line with his wider immigration crackdown, a federal court has determined that President Donald Trump overstepped his authority by excluding asylum applications from the country’s southern border.
US District Judge Randolph Moss issued a warning on Wednesday that Trump’s actions would lead to the “presidentially decreed, alternative immigration system” being created in opposition to the laws that were passed by Congress.
Prior to now, the nation’s laws had ascribed the right to asylum. However, President Trump invoked the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) on January 20 when he took office for a second term.
According to Trump, “this authority” includes the right to impose restrictions on access to certain areas of the immigration system and to prevent foreign nationals from entering the country physically.
However, Judge Moss, a former president of the United States, refrained from making that claim in his 128-page decision (PDF).
According to Moss, “Nothing in the INA or the Constitution grants the President or his delegatees the sweeping authority that the Proclamation asserts.”
He emphasized that the president was not authorized to “replace the comprehensive rules and procedures” in US immigration law with an “extra-statutory, extraregulatory regime.”
When people are feared for their safety or safety, they go through the asylum process known as asylum. Successful applicants are permitted to remain in the country despite the high acceptance bar for asylum applications.
Trump, however, refers to immigration from the US to Mexico as an “invasion” led by foreign powers.
He has cited that justification to support the suspension of asylum rights.
However, Judge Moss ruled that if asylum was suspended, sufferers of persecution could suffer significant harm.
There is a good chance that tens of thousands of people will be defrauded of the legal processes they are entitled to if the Proclamation is continued in effect while an appeal is pending, according to Moss.
He gave the Trump administration, however, a 14-day appeals window. The administration must follow their instructions.
In response to the ruling on Wednesday, White House spokesman Abigail Jackson said, “A local district court judge has no authority to prevent President Trump and the United States from securing our border from the flood of aliens trying to enter illegally.” We anticipate being proven right on appeal.
The administration also asserted in court documents that it had the authority to determine whether or not the US was facing invasion.
Government lawyers wrote that the determination that the United States is facing an invasion is a question that cannot be answered politically.
Judge Moss sympathized with another administration’s claim that applications had simply been flooded with applications.
The Court acknowledged that the Executive Branch had to deal with significant difficulties in deciding whether to grant asylum to those who entered the country and preventing and deterring unlawful entry, he wrote.
However, he came to the conclusion that US laws did not grant President Trump “the unilateral authority to enact laws that restrict the rights of foreigners seeking asylum.”
Immigrant rights organizations, including the Florence Project, Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, and RAICES, filed a class-action complaint as a result of the decision.
The decision was welcomed by the American Civil Liberties Union as a significant step in upholding both the rights of immigrants and the authority to pass laws.
Source: Aljazeera
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