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Reuters

US President Donald Trump scored an initial victory Wednesday in his latest move to clamp down on immigration when a judge in Washington declined to block a new rule that bars almost all asylum applications at the US-Mexican border.
The rule requires all asylum seekers arriving at the southern border to first pursue safe haven in a third country through which they travelled on their way to the United States.
The decision allows the rule to stand for now.
But the Trump-appointed judge, Timothy Kelly of US District Court for the District of Columbia, will still preside over the underlying legal challenge that could strike the law down.




More immediately, the rule also faces a second court challenge in the Northern District of California, before a judge, Jon Tigar, appointed by former President Barack Obama. A hearing in that case was held on Wednesday and a written ruling could be issued at any time.
Tigar could issue an order to block the new asylum rule, possibly in the form of a preliminary injunction, which carries more weight than a restraining order.
Even so, the Trump administration was quick to celebrate the win in the Washington court, saying it would discourage abuse of the asylum process.
“The rule properly encourages migrants to seek asylum in other countries they have travelled through before reaching the United States and makes those who fail to do so ineligible for asylum, thereby foreclosing opportunistic claims by those who want to exploit our asylum system,” White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham said in a statement.

The administration has sought to curtail the increasing numbers of mostly Central American migrants arriving at the US -Mexico border after fleeing violence and poverty in countries such as Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. It has characterised the vast majority of their asylum claims as bogus.
After the administration announced the rule last week, the American Civil Liberties Union and pro-immigrant groups sued, claiming it violates US law which welcomes those who come to the United States while fleeing persecution at home.
Opponents of the rule contend the United States cannot force migrants to first apply for asylum elsewhere, such as Mexico or Guatemala, unless Washington first has a “safe third country” agreement with that government. Both Mexico and Guatemala have resisted Trump administration efforts to reach such a deal.
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The judge’s decision in the DC court to allow the rule to go forward was in response to a lawsuit filed by the Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights Coalition, which said it was disappointed by the ruling but would keep fighting.
“We had hoped to obtain immediate relief from the potentially drastic consequences of this rule, which we firmly believe violates US law and the Constitution,” Mitchell Reich, one of the lawyers representing the coalition, said in a statement.

In California, Tigar said he was struck by the dangers faced by people passing through Mexico, which was significant because the Trump administration argued that the country was a safe haven.
“The administrative record about the dangers faced by persons transiting through Mexico and the inadequacy of the asylum system there … is stunning,” Tigar said from the bench.
The administration has issued a rapid-fire series of anti-immigration edicts recently. The issue is shaping up to be a focus of the 2020 presidential campaign.
Voters rewarded Trump for his anti-immigrant rhetoric in the 2016 election campaign, during which he promised to build a wall on the US-Mexico border and called for a ban on Muslims entering the United States.
Last week, the administration issued another rule to expedite deportations for immigrants who have crossed illegally within the last two years and are caught anywhere in the United States. The rule eliminated a level of judicial review and expanded a program typically applied only along the southern border with Mexico.
Democrats have blasted the policies as cruel, faulting the Trump administration for warehousing migrants in crowded detention facilities along the border and separating immigrant children from the adults they have travelled with.


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Donald Trump

Immigration crackdown: Donald Trump’s new rule that halts almost all asylum applications at Mexican border clears initial legal hurdle

A United States Customs and Border Protection officer checks the documents of migrants before they are taken to apply for asylum in the United States. Photo: AP Photo

People, including US and Mexican citizens, take part in a "Lights For Liberty" rally to demand Border Patrol facilities and migrant detention centers in the United States be closed down, outside of the US Embassy in Mexico City, on July 12, 2019. (Photo by Pedro PARDO / AFP)

epa07735865 Dozens of migrants return to Mexican territory through the Chaparral's checkpoint in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico, 23 July 2019. Government of the US President Donald J. Trump plans to expand the application of the expedited deportations of migrants that remained in the country illegally for less than two years, according to documents of the Department of Homeland Security. EPA-EFE/Joebeth Terriquez

UN human rights chief ‘shocked’ and ‘appalled’ by migrant detention conditions on southern US border

Migrant families held in an overcrowded Border Patrol facility in Texas on June 10. Photo: AFP

TOPSHOT - CORRECTION - This image released in a report on July 02, 2019 by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Inspector General Office (OIG) shows migrant families overcrowding a Border Patrol facility on June 11, 2019 in Weslaco, texas. - The report by the DHS inspector general said the health and security of both migrants and US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials is under threat "We are concerned that overcrowding and prolonged detention represent an immediate risk to the health and safety of DHS agents and officers, and to those detained. " (Photo by - / DHS/ Office of the Inspector General / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / DHS Inspector General Office" - NO MARKETING - NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS / “The erroneous mention[s] appearing in the metadata of this photo has been modified in AFP systems in the following manner: byline by [DHS / Office of the Inspector General] instead of [Eric BARADA

epa07696514 UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Chilean Michelle Bachelet talks about the situation of human rights in Venezuela, during the 41th session of the Human Rights Council, at the European headquarters of the United Nations (UNOG) in Geneva, Switzerland, 05 July 2019. EPA-EFE/MARTIAL TREZZINI

White House moves to block asylum for migrants crossing Mexico

A Central American migrant looks on from a fence at a shelter for women and children in Mexico. Photo: AFP

Tents are piled up in a hangar at Juventud 2000 migrant shelter in Tijuana, Baja California state, Mexico on July 13, 2019. - Asylum seekers in the US are overflowing shelters in Mexico waiting for their claims to be processed. (Photo by Eduardo Jaramillo Castro / AFP)

U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr describes the Trump administration's effort to gain citizenship data during the 2020 census as Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross stands at his side during an event with the president in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, U.S., July 11, 2019. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

ICE raids: slow start to Donald Trump’s plan to deport thousands of undocumented immigrants

Two prisoners from earlier raids look out from a cell window at the main ICE detention centre in downtown Los Angeles. Photo: AFP

Family members wave to a relative who was picked up in an earlier Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid outside the main ICE detention centre in downtown Los Angeles, California on July 14, 2019. - Thousands of undocumented immigrants waited in uncertainty, fearful of nationwide raids that President Donald Trump said would lead to a wave of expulsions. Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were expected to conduct raids in at least 10 major cities, with plans to arrest about 2,000 undocumented migrants who entered the United States recently. (Photo by Mark RALSTON / AFP)

News

World

United States & Canada

Rule would require all asylum seekers arriving at the southern border to first pursue safe haven in a third country


Rule would require all asylum seekers arriving at the southern border to first pursue safe haven in a third country.


US immigration

Mexico

United States

US Politics

Immigration crackdown: Donald Trump’s new rule that halts almost all asylum applications at Mexican border clears initial legal hurdle

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}Rule would require all asylum seekers arriving at the southern border to first pursue safe haven in a third country

Rule would require all asylum seekers arriving at the southern border to first pursue safe haven in a third country