Trump barred from denying ‘asylum’

WASHINGTON: A federal judge late on Monday put a temporary halt to a Trump administration order denying the possibility of asylum to people who enter the US illegally.

President Donald Trump issued the proclamation earlier this month as a matter of what he called national security as a caravan of thousands of Central American migrants made its way through Mexico toward the US border.

US District Judge Jon Tigar in San Francisco issued a temporary restraining order against the Trump proclamation, thus granting a request from human rights groups who had sued shortly after the order was announced.

Under the proclamation, Trump said only people who enter the US at official checkpoints -- as opposed to sneaking across the border -- can apply for asylum. Judge Tigar wrote that the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 states that any foreigner who arrives in the US, "whether or not at a designated port of arrival," may apply for asylum.

"The rule barring asylum for immigrants who enter the country outside a port of entry irreconcilably conflicts with the INA and the expressed intent of Congress," Tigar wrote. "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 added.

The judge’s restraining order remains in effect until the court decides on the case. Trump’s administration has argued that he has the executive power to curb immigration in the name of national security -- a power he invoked right after taking office last year with a controversial ban on travelers from several mostly Muslim countries.